The ministries of agriculture of Iran and India have signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a joint committee on agriculture.
The Iranian and Indian sides held their first meeting concurrent with a food and agriculture exhibition of India in New Delhi during the first week of September 2023, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
The agreements were reached when deputies and CEOs of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad of Iran visited India to discuss cooperation in the agriculture sector. The Iranian delegation held meetings with Indian officials to remove obstacles in the way of exporting Iran’s agricultural products to India and agreed on supplying seeds from India.
Alireza Peymanpak, Iran's Deputy Agriculture Minister in charge of trade and market regulation, held negotiations with the Indian sides, and the two countries agreed upon kicking off consultations on free trade regarding agricultural products; so, they decided to begin the process of the negotiations as soon as possible.
The volume of Iran’s non-oil exports to India increased from $1.2 billion in the Rouhani administration to $2.1 billion in the first year of President Ebrahim Raisi’s tenure, and 10% of the export consists of agricultural and food industry products.