According to the report by the IME’s International Affairs and PR, on Monday, March 6, the official opening ceremony for trading pistachio in IME held in IME’s trading floor attended by Ali Tayebnia, Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, Mohammad Reza Pourebrahimi chairman of the Economic Committee of the Parliament of Iran, Shapour Mohammadi, chairman of SEO, Mohammad Ali Tahmasbi Deputy Minister of Agriculture as well as media reporters and journalists.
At the beginning of the ceremony, CEO of IME, extending his warm welcome to the audience, stated that pistachio is one of the country's strategic products and for globalization of this commodity it is necessary to provide prerequisite of being the price reference in the world through creating an integrated market.
Hamed Soltaninejad added that trading Pistachio in IME will promote the brand of Iranian Pistachio and will provide the possibility of direct presence of international customers in this market via the online dissemination of trading prices and volumes in the country and the world. So, given the 40% share of Iran in the global pistachio market, we must play a role in price discovery for this commodity and the derivatives markets will contribute to achieve this goal.
Thereafter, he outlined the IME’s performance and programs in agricultural sector over the Persian calendar year 1395, and stated that since the beginning of 1395 up to March 2 compared with the same period last year IME has experienced growth in trading volume and value in most areas and by the support of Minister of Agriculture the agricultural sector is enjoying a significant position in the IME.
In this regard, he added that during last year, 753 thousand tonnes of agricultural products were traded in IME and over the current year this figure exceeded 2 million and 360 thousand tonnes representing 213% growth in trading volume and 189% growth in trading value of agricultural products.
Soltaninejad said that by implementation of Article 33 of law of increasing the productivity of agriculture sector on maize and feed barely over a million and 150 thousand tonnes of feed barley and 600 thousand of maize were traded.
Referring the one of the IME’s function as a market regulator for agricultural commodities and the necessity of employing long-term and futures contracts in this area, CEO of IME stated that derivatives market is of high liquidity and has many market participants. A product such as pistachio has the potential to be traded through new financial instruments in derivatives market. Iranian pistachio production volume in 2015 totaled 230 thousand tons and the market value of 50 billion rials. High volume and value of trading pistachio and the large market participants in this market as well as existence of suitable warehouses for storing this commodity are exactly the required conditions to create a well-functioning derivatives market.
HA/PR