October 15, 2024 - Kaveh Zargran is economically active in the field of food, agriculture and mining industries in Iran and has an outstanding number of important roles to fulfil.
He is a member of many industry boards and chambers including: a representative on the board of Iran Chamber in the 7th, 8th and 9th periods; on the Advisory Council of Iranian Chamber of Commerce; Board of Directors of the Joint Chamber of Iran and Russia; Head of the Commission for the Agricultural Commission; Chairman of the Internal Trade Commission of Iran Chamber of Commerce; on the Board of Directors and Secretary General of the Federation of Iranian Food Industries Associations.
In addition, he is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Joint Chamber of Iran and Brazil, founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Iran Grain Association and a member of the Legal Technical Committee of Food and Beverages of the Food and Drug Organisation.
He is also on the Board of the International Sunflower Oil Association, Managing Director and Chairman of the Gholat-Ban Company, Chairman of the Atitiva Development Company, Chairman of the Khavar Rashnu Trading Company (all three active in the fields of vegetable oil and grains). Chairman of Aria Grain Logistics (mechanised silos for grain storage and logistics) and Chairman of Zaryab Pars (a company active in mining).
Q. What education did you achieve and how did you enter the grain and food processing industry in Iran?
A. I have bachelor’s degree in mine engineering and a master’s degree in strategic management with a PhD in entrepreneurship and future researching. As my father had an industrial bread-making factory I work there from 22 years of age. Little-by-little I became involved with the industry associations and with unions.
I became the chairman of Industrial Bread Association of Iran and after a few years. I entered the Federation of Food Industry Associations as a board member and after some years, while still engaged in my personal business in industrial bread production and in relationships with flour producers, because of my job in industrial bread production, I entered in the wheat trade too. I supplied wheat to flour producers from which we bought flour for our own family factory.
I became the Secretary General of Federation of Food Industry Associations in 2013. And in 2014 I became a member of the Board of Representatives in Tehran Chamber of Commerce and then in charge of Agricultural Commission in Tehran Chamber of Commerce for several periods. At the same time I expanded my field of activity into the grains business.
In 2018 I started to developed infrastructures for grain activity in northern ports of Amirabad and Anzali, as my business was growing and we were importing some grains from the Caspian Sea, so we established grain silos in those ports.
Then we expanded infrastructures into Imam Khomeini Port in the south of Iran, to facilitate our work in the south and at the same time we built vegetable oil extraction and an animal feed factory in the biggest industrial city of Kaveh Industrial City. So I added vegetable oil trade to my activities and today I’m involved in different fields like grains, vegetable oil, rice and beans.
I established a transportation system to do the transporting of goods from these ports to different parts of Iran.
Q. What is the population of Iran and is the country self-sufficient in its food production or does it rely on imports of food raw materials, etc?
A. Iran has 85 million people which is the second largest population, after Egypt, in the area of Middle East and Northern Africa. Iran is also the second biggest economy in the region. Iran has 8.6-million-hectare land capable of cultivating grains, in which six million hectare is wheat plantation.
Wheat is strategic for Iran. 3.6 million hectares out of 8.6 million hectare is rain-fed cultivation and the rest needs irrigation. Good harvests in Iran are highly depends on rain-fed grains. On average grain production has been 23 million tonnes at most and 10 million tonnes at least during the past 10 years. The rest of the needs of the country for grains is imported.
As the most part of our lands belonging to wheat production, so some years we are self-sufficient for wheat, but most years we need to import wheat due to the climate situation. Iranian consumption of wheat is 12.5 million tonnes annually in which about nine million tonnes belongs to bakery and is used to produced traditional breads and about three million tonnes belongs to industry consumption that is for spaghetti, confectionery and cakes-making factories.
Q. Is the industry important to the government in terms of food security?
A. Regarding wheat usage there is a lot of fluctuations. In short, Iran is not self-sufficient in grains and has to import about 13 to 14 million tonnes on average annually and some years that the climate is not good, it can even increase to 22 to 23 million tonnes.
About crude vegetable oils like sunflower oil, soybean oil and palm oil the situation is the same. We import one to 1,5 million tonnes of crude vegetable oil per year.
Iran needs 5.5 million tonnes soybean meal per year that is about half imported and the rest is coming from oilseeds crushed in crushing plants domestically.
Q. Internationally, little is known or understood about the milling industry in Iran. With that in mind can you briefly explain how the flour milling industry is structured? And could you also explain about animal feed situation in your country?
A. Iran has about 300 flour milling factories. Most of them are equipped with European and Turkish modern technologies. The capacity of flour milling is about 22 million tonnes, but 50 percent of this capacity is the country consumption-wheat and bread has a very significant role in Iran. Bread is a blessing and has a kind of holiness feeling in our country.
Consumption per capita of wheat is about 141kg per person annually. As bread is very important and provides 40 to 45 percent of needed calories, it is the main portion of people’s meal so the government is the sole policy maker for it, however the factories producing flour are belonging the private sectors.
Buying flour from farmers is done by the government through guarantees and the rest is imported by the government. The flour used in industry is imported by the private sector.
For traditional bread making, the government prepares wheat from either local farmers or imports which it then provides to the flour mills. The factories receive the cost of milling from the government, then the government gives the flour to the traditional bread makers, and they have to sell the bread according to the government’s pre-determined prices. There is a certain amount of sharing of flour among each traditional bread making bakery and the government is very sensitive about the bread price. The government subsidies traditional bread by adjusting prices.
There are 852 animal feed factories in Iran that produce animal feeds with the production capacity of 27 million tonnes. Half of these 852 factories have modern European technology. All kinds of seeds famous in the world are capable of production in the factories.
Iran needs 10 to 11 million tonnes animal corn annually; one million tonnes is produced domestically, and nine to 10 million tonnes is imported
Q. What are the key challenges facing Iran’s flour and feed milling sectors and is self-sufficiency and food security goals the government is aiming to achieve?
A. The main problem for our industry is that a lot of animal husbandries and ranchers directly buy corn and barley and use traditional milling to make animal feed, so it lacks the additives and other useful micronutrient.
That is why the animal feed industry tries to encourage the government to ban these activities and ask them to use modernised and concentrated animal feeds produced in factories.
The main problem of flour milling industry is that all the process is under government control, and it seems as if the factories work for them. More than 95 percent of the factories belong to the private sector, but the rules are made by the government totally. Government is the sole policy maker.
Also, 95 percent of the animal feed factories belong to the private sector but about policy making it is not like the flour milling that government wants to interfere 100 percent.
Factories can buy from anyone and sell to anyone too but they have to submit who they buy from locally and who they sell to in a special system.
Q. What advice would you give to students and young professionals about the benefits of working in the grain milling sectors?
A. If anybody wants to enter this business needs to have an aim and then stamina.
To have experiences from other professions and also by themselves which is also very important. But the main drive is to try and try and try again.
The Global MillerThis blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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