TEHRAN - Iran has signed an agreement with Brazil to barter its fertilizer for livestock feed from the South American country.
The deal was signed between Iranian agriculture minister Javad Sadati Nejad and his Brazilian counterpart Tereza Cristina Corrêa da Costa Dias in a meeting in Tehran.
The agreement allows Iran to export up to 400,000 metric tons (mt) of urea fertilizer to Brazil per year in return for receiving shipments of animal feed from the country.
Sadati Nejad said Iran aims to increase urea exports to Brazil to around 2 million mt per year, adding that shipments are currently at around 0.6 million mt.
He said Brazilian authorities had also agreed to work with Iran on a preferential trade mechanism that could boost exchanges between the two countries.
The minister insisted Iran should earn more from exports of certain farming products to Brazil, including from pistachio, saffron and nuts.
“Although we are Brazil’s third trade partner in the Middle East, this trade is not balanced … We should work to bring Iranian farming products on the Brazilian table,” said Sadati Nejad.
Reports in the local media said that Brazilian agriculture minister Dias had welcomed the idea of increased Iranian exports of farming products to Brazil.
Dias promised she would work on a proposal to import apple and nuts from Iran upon her return to Brazil.
Other reports suggested Iran and Brazil had agreed to exchange more trade and business delegations between each other in the future months and to set up trade offices in an effort to boost trade relations.
The two countries of Iran and Brazil enjoy high potentials and capacities which can broaden their cooperation in agricultural field suitably, she emphasized.
Referring to the beginning of a new chapter in relations between Iran and Brazil, the Agriculture Minister of Brazil stated that trade exchanges between the two countries in the field of agriculture can increase optimally, so that private sectors of the two countries can play a leading role in this respect.
“We also seek to facilitate trade relations with Iran which requires increasing exchange of trade delegations between the two countries and we must also expand trade by establishing a trade office,” she stressed.