Iranian media: "Flour and bread" are being smuggled to neighboring countries
While members of parliament have acknowledged the severe shortage of bread in Sistan and Baluchestan province, the media in Iran are reporting the smuggling of bread under the guise of "animal waste" to Afghanistan and Pakistan using "heavy transit vehicles."
The Eqtasad Online website reported on Sunday, February 10, that bread smuggling is "significantly" prevalent in the Milk region, and that border residents of Afghanistan and Pakistan are obtaining their bread from Iranian border cities.
The border village of Milk is a part of Hirmand County in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. The Milk border terminal is located next to this village.
On Friday, February 28, the representative of the people of Iranshahr and Sarbaz in the Islamic Consultative Assembly reported the formation of "long lines to buy bread" and the price of each loaf reaching "10,000 Tomans" in some areas of Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Abdolnaser Derakhshan, referring to the fact that transportation companies are refusing to bring flour to Iranshahr due to the increased cost, told the Shafaqna news website: "The lack of management in local and regional complexes has also become an additional reason for people to buy bread for 10,000 tomans."
At the same time, a number of people from the Sistan region in the north of Sistan and Baluchestan province held a protest rally in various areas, including in front of the Milk border terminal on the Iran-Afghanistan border, on Friday, February 28, in protest of the non-payment of the Helmand water fee. Among other things, they "attempted to break the windows of three trucks belonging to Afghan nationals stationed at the Milk border terminal."
EqtesadOnline quoted the Secretary of Supervision for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency in Sistan and Baluchestan Province as reporting on bread smuggling through the Milk border, and wrote that the Director General for Preventing Smuggling of Petroleum Products confirmed this news, and the Governor of Iranshahr also announced the "identification of bread smuggling violators."
According to the report, "flour is billed as animal waste and is easily transported from one province to another until it reaches border cities," while "inspection stations are not sensitive to the transfer of goods between provinces, and subsidized goods are easily moved around the country. For this reason, the smuggled cargo discovered in Sistan may be the flour quota of Golestan or Isfahan."
According to ILNA, on February 27, the head of the Alborz County Government Penal Department in Qazvin Province announced the discovery of smuggled flour in the county, saying that the bakery owner was closing the unit under various pretexts to smuggle the flour.
According to this report, the government quota for flour is 34,000 tomans and its price in the free market is 170,000 tomans.
Smuggling of flour and bread to neighboring countries in southeastern Iran is taking place while in addition to Sistan and Baluchestan province, a shortage of flour and bread has also been reported in Kerman province after the flood. Villagers affected by the earthquake "do not have bread and are asking for help, even for a bag of flour."
On Thursday, November 4, ILNA news agency quoted Ali Gholi Imani, vice president of the National Wheat Growers Foundation, as saying that "the country has started importing wheat to provide bread for the people," adding that Iran "needs 11 million tons of wheat annually for domestic consumption" and "about five million tons of it have been produced in the country."
ILNA also quoted the head of the Iranian Food Industries Association as saying: "Our current conditions are such that we must enter into negotiations with any country that has a production surplus."
Source: Voice of America
