On 9 and 10 April 2016 the German Minister of Food and Agriculture visited Iran for negotiations. A business delegation from the agricultural sector accompanied Schmidt.
The goals of the visit
The trip is a central component of an initiative of Minister Schmidt to intensify the dialogue with Iran. The German Minister of Food and Agriculture Christian Schmidt stated, “It is important that now the sanctions have ended to continue the dialogue with Iran and open the markets for German companies. An intensive economic cooperation can support the peace and reform movements and stabilize the country.” Iran's Minister of Agriculture Hojjati and Iranian business representatives were interested in intensive cooperations with Germany in the agricultural and food sector.
The signing of a statement of intent for veterinary issues with Federal Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt and the Iranian Minister of Agriculture, Mahmoud Hojjati, in Tehran, Iran.
Source: BMEL / Thomas Köhler / photothek.net
To improve coordination in the future the German representatives have a strong interest in the position of a permanent representative of German agriculture in Iran. This representative significantly simplifies contacts and will start working later this year. If the major associations of German agriculture financially contribute to the BMEL representative the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is willing to co-finance up to 50% of the costs of a representative in Iran.
One of the goals of this trip was the signing of the statement of intent for veterinary issues between Germany and Iran. The veterinary agreement improves the cooperation between the two countries in the battle against animal diseases and makes it easier for German companies to export animals and meat to Iran. The first business deal has already been made. The minister also met with Mohsen Jalapour the president of the chamber of commerce, industry, mining and agriculture in Iran. Members of the German delegation included representatives of the German Raiffeisen Association, the German Association Cattle Breeders, the German Farmers' Association, the German Agricultural Society and the Association of German Machines and Industrial plants.
A dominating theme of all the discussions was the water supply and the high use of scarce resources by the Iranian agriculture. The technology transfer between Iran and Germany could assist Iran with know-how and technology to solve the problems with drought in agriculture. Due to the global problems with water supply the Berlin World Food Conference in 2017 is titled 'Agriculture and Water'.