DUSHANBE, November 4, 2008, Asia-Plus — Iranian state-run company dealing with production of agricultural machines intends to launch a harvester-producing enterprise in Tajikistan.
In a report released at a press conference in Dushanbe, Hamid Reza Sultani, top manager of the limited liability company Agrotech Khorasan, revealed on November 4 that Iranian harvesters had been successfully tested in Tajikistan over the past two years.
Hamid Reza Sultani arrived in Tajikistan to attend an international five-day agricultural exhibition, AgroFood 2008, that will kick off at the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex in Dushanbe on November 8.
Mr. Sultani will represent the Iranian state harvester-producing company at the fair.
According to him, the test results have shown that the Iranian-manufactured harvesters are not worse than those that are currently used in Tajikistan and the Iranian harvesters even excel them in some parameters. Moreover, the Iranian harvesters are much cheaper, Sultani said.
Sultani added that representatives of the Iranian harvester-producing company were currently conducting negotiations with representatives of Tajik Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) on launching the harvest-producing enterprises in Tajikistan.
We will recall that the Tajik-Iranian joint venture for assembling tractors, TojIron, now operates in Dushanbe. TojIron started operating with the capital of $10 million in September 2006 but failed to bear fruits due to lack of financial support as well as red tapes in importing tractor parts from Iran. The enterprise has the capacity to assemble up to 2,000 tractors a year. TojIron was created by an agreement between Tajik industries minister and the Iranian ambassador to Tajikistan in Dushanbe in June 2006. Under the agreement Tajikistan owns 49 percent of the shares and Iran holds a 51% ownership interest in the company.
According to the TojIron top managers, the current price of a tractor assembled at JV TojIron is $17,500.
