Selling fake rice in a citizen's store called Iranian rice
The CEO of the Shahrvand chain store was summoned to court for selling dozens of tons of mixed, low-quality rice under the name of Hashemi's premium rice. The rice, 70 percent of which was Pakistani, was being sold for 28,500 Tomans per kilogram.
The sale of low-quality and mixed rice under the name of first-class Iranian rice in Shahrvand stores led to the summoning of the company's CEO and the filing of a legal case in this regard. Masoud Sareel-ol-Qalam, CEO of Shahrvand Company, admitted to selling substandard rice under the name of Iranian premium rice in a press conference. He explained: "In the first part, rice was purchased from a rice supplier who has been Shahrvand's supplier for 11 years. After sampling, it was determined that there was no problem with the quality of the rice. However, in the second part, according to the sampling conducted by the quality control department, it became clear that the rice did not have the required purity and quality."
Sareel-ol-Qalam added that after the poor quality of the rice was discovered, on May 19, he ordered it to be collected and stored so that it could be returned to the supplier. This was while on May 21, the Ta'zirat patrol encountered this rice in the Shahrvand branches and issued an order to sell each ten-kilogram bag at a price of ten thousand tomans per kilogram.
According to the CEO of Shahrvand, 200 tons of the rice in question were purchased from the supplier, of which over 115 tons were sold for 10,000 Tomans, and the rest were sealed in a location outside Shahrvand's warehouses for a judicial decision.
In justifying the continued supply of rice despite the detection of fraud, Sareel-ol-Qalam said that there was not enough time to declassify 100 tons of rice: "At the same time as the presence of the penal patrols in one of the citizen's stores, our colleagues in the inspection and security department, as well as the quality of goods, were present at the rice supplier factory in Fereydounkenar, and the supply of 30 tons of rice being packaged at the factory was prevented, and according to the order of the provincial prosecutor, this rice was also stored at the factory until the outcome of the case is determined."
Rice import with 4200 Tomans
Hossein Izadi, head of the Tehran Penal Court Joint Patrol Center, said: "Expert tests conducted on this rice showed that 70% of this rice is Pakistani and 30% is Iranian. Izadi has determined that the citizen's violation of supplying counterfeit goods is certain."
Noor Mohammad Torbatinejad, spokesman for the Parliament's Agriculture Commission, said in an interview on May 20 that the price of more than 20,000 tomans per kilogram of rice is a misuse of the psychological atmosphere of the market by speculators: "Each kilogram of rice imported from Pakistan or India should be sold for about 7,000 tomans, and the price of domestic varieties should be set between 10,000 and 15,000 tomans, depending on their quality level."
Abdullah Haghighat, vice president of the Food Bankers' Union, said that the Hashemite label has been applied to all rice, but studies show that nearly 80 percent of this rice is Pakistani and only 20 percent is Iranian.
Small and poor-quality rice was being sold in Shahrvand for 28,500 Tomans per kilo, while Iranian rice was selling for 12,000 Tomans per kilo six months ago. The Director General of the Office of Supply, Distribution and Market Regulation Planning in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture said that rice imports are continuing at a price of 4,200 Tomans.
Source: DW
