DUSHANBE, February 6, Asia-Plus – Tajik-Iranian joint venture, TajIran, assembling agricultural tractors in Dushanbe, has failed to properly organize sale of its output.
Jamshed Halimov, engineer-in-chief with TajIran, said in an interview with Asia-Plus that their tractors are not in much demand on the market because of high price and they have not sold any tractor so far. According to him, the price of the tractors assembled in Dushanbe has been set at the rate of $14,000 per tractor, while the price of imported tractors fluctuates from $11,000 to $12,000 per tractor.
A TajIran delegation today left for the Iranian city of Tabriz, where Iran’s tranctor manufacturing plant, which is one of sharelholders of the TajIran JV, is located. “Within the next few days, a meeting with participation of top managers of all affiliates of the plant will be held in Tabriz and the TajIran managers will bring this problem to the company’s attention,” Halimov said.
According to him, TajIran has assembled only 20 tractors so far. Halimov noted that they plan to put into operation two other workshops at the enterprise this year
TajIran has the capacity to assemble up to 3,000 tractors a year, some 10-15 tractors a day. ”But everything depends on the demand for our product on the market,” Halimov said.
TajIran began operations on September 22, 2006 after a two-day test and at present 60 competitively selected Tajik specialists work at the enterprise.
We will recall that Komil Sharipov, chairman of the joint venture’s board of directors, said that time that as of September 25, the enterprise had assembled 10 tractors. According to him, all components for the tractors come from Iran but they plan to product a number of components in Tajikistan. The enterprise also intends to produce carts, ploughs and other agricultural machines in the first half of 2007.
The enterprise is expected to mainly supply Tajik farmers. However, they also plan to export the tractors to Central Asian countries and Afghanistan.
The first tractors were delivered to Tajikistan from Iran for testing in 2004. The tractors were tested in Danghara, Hissor, Rasht and Rudaki, and they proved useful.
TajIran was launched by an agreement signed between Tajik ministry of industry and Iran’s tractor manufacturing plant in Dushanbe in mid-June 2006. Under the agreement Tajikistan owns 49 percent of the shares and Iran holds a 51% ownership interest in the company. The project cost is US $10 million.
