Iran is working with China on a fisheries cooperation program that could funnel investment into fishing facilities and processing plants in Iran, even as the country is further squeezed by renewed U.S. sanctions.
A delegation of Chinese fisheries officials and executives were in Tehran and the port city of Bandar Abbas this week. A fisheries cooperation summit between the two countries will be held later this year announced Ma Ai Guo – chief economist at China’s Department of Agriculture, which oversees fisheries – during talks with agriculture and fisheries officials in Tehran. Ma’s delegation visited Chinese trawlers docked at the port of Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf in southern Iran.
Iran has looked to China for finance since the U.S. government recently announced the end of a waiver which would mean buyers of Iranian oil must stop purchases by 1 May or face American sanctions, the stated goal being to drastically reduce Iranian oil sales, squeezing the country’s finances. China and India have become key trading partners for Iran and significant investors in Iranian infrastructure.
The free trade zone operated by Bandar Abbas – which is a 12-hour sail from the key trade hub of Dubai – is promising shrimp farmers a return of USD 2 million (EUR 1.8 million) on every investment of USD 3 million (EUR 2.7 million).
“The shrimp of Iran is unique due to the amount of Gulf Sea coastline and the access to the Persian Gulf's pristine beaches and the excellent land on the shores of the Makran," the coastal region running along Iran’s southern shoreline, Behnam Arvin, a sales executive from the commercial port of Bandar Abbas – which is also Iran’s main seaport – told SeafoodSource last month.
The shrimp proposal could prove interesting to Iran’s key trading partner, China, which has built and financed several infrastructure projects in the country and has made Iran central to its Belt and Road Initiative aimed at increasing connectivity to Eurasian markets. Many Chinese firms, however, have retreated since the U.S. withdrew last year from an international treaty signed with Iran focused on development of its nuclear technology. The resulting sanctions imposed by Washington have also frightened off European investors worried about being targeted by the U.S. for breaking sanctions, despite E.U. assurances.
