The European Union’s embargo on Iranian pistachios is not valid
The issue of sanctions against Iranian pistachios by the European Union is not true and only warnings have been issued by this union.
EU ports are equipped with Rapid Information Systems (RSSF) and immediately report contamination of imported food to the EU Health Center, said Ghaibi, Director General of the Pistachio Office of the Ministry of Jihad Agriculture.
He continued: Due to the existence of this information system, the number of returned shipments of Iranian pistachios had increased since January. The European Union had written a letter calling on Iran to pay attention to this increase in returned shipments, stating that otherwise restrictive measures would be taken. Applies to Iran’s export products.
Gheibi, stating that the European Union’s position on Iranian pistachios is by no means political, called on Iranian exporters and gardeners to accept the fact that the consumer is right and that a healthy product should be provided to the customer.
Gardeners and exporters should not export contaminated orchard products in any way, said the director general of the pistachio office of the Ministry of Jihad Agriculture.
Regarding the recent visit of an Iranian delegation to the European Union to study pistachio exports to EU member states, he said: This visit took place in the form of periodic trips of EU and Iranian representatives and the talks were held in a cordial and interested atmosphere for pistachio trade.
Regarding the achievements of this trip, Gheibi said: We are going to carry out joint projects with the European Union; Also, one of the issues discussed was that due to the increased shipments to the European Union, the costs of aflatoxin testing should be paid by the exporters, which was agreed at this meeting by the Iranian exporters.
Regarding the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding between Iran and the members of the European Commission, he said: In this Memorandum of Understanding, the Iranian side undertook to export pistachio consignments with ND health certificate (without aflatoxin); It was also decided that the validity period of the health certificate of export shipments issued by the Ministry of Health would be reduced from six months to four months to reduce the duration of exports and, consequently, to reduce pollution.
The Iranian side pledged to work to reduce the average contamination of exported pistachios to less than 10 percent. Also, the acceptance of aflatoxin testing costs in the ports of EU member states by Iranian exporters was another agreement, Gheibi continued.
He added: At this meeting, it was decided to review the measures of restrictive measures taken by Iran for companies and exporters whose percentage of returned shipments is more than 10% in a period of six months.
The EU has pledged to persuade European ports to conduct aflatoxin testing within a maximum of 15 days to prevent excessive stops of pistachio shipments, said the director general of the Pistachio Office of the Ministry of Jihad for Agriculture. Be; They also promised that if the percentage of Iranian pistachio shipments returned to the European Union fell below 10 percent, they would relinquish control of all shipments and conduct a random check.
At present, Iranian pistachio export shipments to the European Union are fully tested for aflatoxin. If the return of export shipments is reduced below 10%, this test will be performed selectively and this will be effective in increasing Iran’s pistachio exports to the EU.
He continued: The members of the European Commission promised to resolve the Iranian pistachio issue with the help of the Iranian side and through technical cooperation and credit assistance.
In the end, Ghaibi said that gardeners and exporters of pistachios in Iran should go through post-modern filters located in European ports for export, and called on gardeners and exporters to pay special attention to the technical and hygienic issues of pistachio production.