Cold weather damaged a large number of pomegranate orchards in the year to March 2008 and the current drought has further aggravated the situation. Saveh, in Markazi province, is one of the main centers of pomegranate cultivation in Iran.
Head of Saveh’s Agricultural Jihad Office Hassan Sharifi told Iran Daily that cold weather has dried up pomegranate trees destroying the entire produce.
Pomegranate trees cannot bear fruit in the coming years and have to be replaced by new pomegranate trees.
He maintained that it will be uneconomic to harvest pomegranates in the next five years.
Sharifi said that if farmers turn to reviving trees in the current year, no pomegranate will be produced in the next two years.
He said that 135,000 hectares are under cultivation in Saveh, of which 16,200 hectares pertain to orchards. Nearly 8,500 hectares are under pomegranate cultivation in Saveh.
“An average of 150,000 tons of first and second grade pomegranates are picked from the orchards each year,“ he said, and noted that 22 tons of the delicious fruit were produced per hectare in the year to March 2008.
Some 15,000 and 60,000 tons of pomegranates are exported annually from Saveh in the form of fruit and concentrate respectively, he noted.
Sharifi said that Markazi province ranks second in terms of area under pomegranate cultivation, adding Fars province stands first.
“Given the high quality and quantity of pomegranate produced in Saveh, it has the top place nationwide in this respect,“ he noted.
Nine cities of Fars province have pomegranate orchards while in Markazi province, the fruit is cultivated only Saveh.
Pomegranates from Saveh were exported to Romania, Japan, France, South Korea, Turkey and Persian Gulf state in recent years.
Sharifi stated that the government agreed to compensate losses inflicted on pomegranate growers but nothing has been done so far to reimburse them.
The official said that only a small part of pomegranate orchards in Saveh are covered by insurance, adding that insurance companies only pay 10 percent of the damages. “A large portion of the city’s economy is dependent on pomegranate cultivation,“ he noted.
He called on the government to pay more attention to pomegranate farmers of Saveh.
Sharifi said that thanks to its diverse climatic conditions, some 70 horticultural and agricultural products are produced in Saveh (also known as Savah) which is located about 100 km southwest of Tehran.
Pomegranate is native to the region extending from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Himalayas in northern India and has been cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean region and the Caucasus since ancient times.

ADB will consider financing the ’peace pipeline’ if a request to the effect is made by the countries involved in the project, said the bank’s Pakistan representative.
In case Tehran, New Delhi and Islamabad request financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the construction of the gas pipeline project between the three countries, the bank will seriously consider the request, said Peter Fiden in Islamabad on Sunday evening.
According to The Post daily, India and Pakistan held talks on Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project, also known as the ’peace pipeline’, and agreed to continue negotiations.
“We have agreed on the fundamentals of the agreement,“ Pakistan’s Oil Minister Khawaja Mohammed said on Friday adding that following further consultations the ’agreement will be concluded’ in a few days or weeks.
The proposed $7.5-billion IPI pipeline has long been delayed due to disagreement between India and Pakistan on transit fee for gas transfer via Pakistan.
Indian suggested transit fee is reportedly 15 cents per million of BTU while Pakistan’s requested figure is 60 cents per million BTU.
India’s Petroleum Minister Murli Deora has said India intends to raise its suggested transit fee. “We have two-three small differences on transit fees. But I am very optimist we can sort out the problems,“ he added recently.

National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company has announced that gasoline production capacity of Arak Refinery will increase to 100,000 barrels a day once the refinery development project is complete.
NIOECC managing director, Asghar Salehi told PIN that gasoline production at the refinery would increase by 11 million liters a day.
He pointed out that with the implementation of Arak Refinery development project, the refinery would increase its production capacity from 175,000 b/d to 250,000 b/d.
Salehi added that once the development project is complete, the refinery’s products will conform to global standards and sulfur production would rise to 650 tons per day.
“The plan is to be implemented in two phases. The first phase is scheduled for completion within the next 39 months and the second by 45 months.“
Total investment in the project will amount to two billion euros, he said adding that the project will comply with the latest European standards.

Iranian gas reserves rank second in the world after Russia.

The Oil Ministry’s active diplomacy has led to the failure of pressures and sanctions imposed on Iran.
Presently, three groups in the ministry are conducting natural gas negotiations with other countries. Deputy Oil Minister Ali Kordan is accompanying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his tour of India and Pakistan for peace pipeline negotiations.
Two years ago, Iran proposed the establishment of an international entity for natural gas producing countries. This has been welcomed and a meeting has been planned in Tehran to formalize the concept.
Currently, Iran’s permanent representative at OPEC, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, and the head of OPEC affairs at the Oil Ministry, Javad Yarjani, are negotiating with gas producing countries about the establishment of a gas OPEC.
Iranian gas reserves rank second in the world after Russia. South Pars is among the largest gas field, with some 24 development phases designed. Two other deputy oil ministers, namely Seifollah Jashnsaz and Hossein Noqrehkar-Shirazi, are negotiating with the Russian firm Gazprom for the latter’s presence in Iranian oil and gas projects.
This is while many Asian and European companies have also expressed interest in Iranian oil projects. Legal and expert groups of the ministry are holding talks with Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman for gas exports.
The success achieved by the ministry’s active diplomacy indicates that the ill efforts of major powers for isolating Iran on the international scene have failed.

Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari has said that crude oil production has increased by 200,000 bpd in the last three years.
The rise in production was achieved by checking the fall in pressure in some of the oil wells, Nozari told Fars news agency on Sunday.
A number of projects are underway to increase the recovery potential of oilfields, with gas injection being one of the techniques applied to increase output, he added.
He further said that upon completion of Phase 2 of Darkhovin oilfield development project, daily output is expected to increase by another 60,000 barrels.
Production of 30,000 more barrels of oil, in addition to the present 25,000 barrels from Azadegan oilfield, is one the projects currently being implemented by the ministry, the minister said.

Cooperative Fund, the credit institute of cooperative sector, paid about 190 billion rials to cooperative companies during March 20-April 19 after studying 786 documents.
Announcing this, manager of the fund’s Public Relations Office said that the institute has helped create jobs in cooperative sector by extending loans.
Saeed Moadi predicted that once the State Expediency Council endorses the establishment of ’cooperative development bank’ and ’taskforce for guaranteeing investment in cooperative sector’, the decision will be notified to the government for implementation, reported IRNA.
The newly-established branches of Cooperative Fund in the provinces have recruited the staff and been equipped with hardware and software facilities, he said adding that grounds are now ready for Cooperative Fund to accept new responsibilities and be transformed into a bank.

National Iranian Oil Company’s director for international affairs said the huge liquidity in industrialized Western countries is the main reason for the unprecedented rise in oil price in international markets and predicted that the trend would continue.
“In the past few years, geopolitical crises in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Nigeria and other parts of the world have created temporary periods of increase in oil price,“ Hojjatollah Ghanimifard told MNA.
However, the current rise in oil price is not the result of these classic political factors, since they can only have transitional effects and cannot explain the current situation, he said.
Oil prices are soaring because of the massive liquidity in industrialized countries, particularly in the United States and Britain, he contended.

Iran will host the ministerial meeting of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), an alliance of the world’s leading producers, on May 6-7.
According to IRNA, the event will be attended by Iran, Algeria, Qatar, Egypt, Malaysia, Norway, Libya, Trinidad & Tobago, Russia, Venezuela, Indonesia and UAE. Oil minister’s advisor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili will chair the meeting.
Proposed by Iran and backed by Russia, the GECF aims to foster the concept of mutuality of interests by favoring dialogue between producers, between producers and consumers and between governments and energy-related industries; to provide a platform to promote study and the exchange of views; and to promote a stable and transparent energy market.
Iranian and Russian officials say the formation of an OPEC-like organization for natural gas will not have a profound impact on gas prices as the cost of each type of energy depends on the competition in the supply of other forms of energy.

The Central Bank of Iran is conducting final-stage talks with six foreign banks that have expressed their readiness to invest in Iran.
CBI Director General Mahmoud Bahmani told Mehr News Agency that foreign banks will soon join Iran’s banking system.
He said there is no obstacle to foreign banks’ investments in Iran, “as the CBI issues related permits and authorizes them“.
Bahmani added that foreign banks are serious about setting up branches in Iran.
“We strongly welcome the presence of foreign banks in Iran,“ he said, adding that Iranian banks have also taken measures to open branches in other countries.
CBI President Tahmasb Mazaheri earlier said the first branch of a European bank will open in Tehran on June 17, noting that another foreign bank has applied to set up seven branches in other Iranian cities.
Bahmani further said the shares of Iranian banks liable to privatization as per Article 44 of the constitution will be sold to the private sector.
“The Commerce Ministry is presently preparing the ground for offering the shares of related banks via the bourse,“ he said.