Markets and Supply in Iran

At the beginning of the pandemic in Iran, the government imposed some restrictions, but not the strict ones. The Iranian food producers were able to gradually adapt to new conditions under the imposed restrictions, and find new strategies to continue their activities and reduce the losses caused by the crisis. These strategies were not the same and farmers in each region based on local conditions, type of cultivation and available facilities took measures to reduce the risk of health and economic damages caused by the crisis as much as possible. For instance, the farmers who live in rural areas, on one hand, managed their relationship with the farm and the market and reduced their trips to densely populated urban areas, and on the other hand, continued their production activities based on public health protocols and social distancing rules. We conducted a small survey with farmers, nomads, and fishermen in different regions and data were collected by telephone interviews. After 80 days from the beginning of the pandemic in Iran, so far, most of the farmers believe that the impact on their livelihoods is not huge yet, and they expect that larger impacts will be visible in a few months when changes in production and consumption will be reflected in market prices.  In Iran, sanctions have put pressure on farmers, and with the arrival of COVID-19, the pressure has been doubled.

This crisis has not had the same effects on the production component of different products and different climates, but it has completely changed the supply and demand of market trends. During the crisis, farmers with local markets suffered the least damage and farmers connected to the international markets saw more damages due to the closure of borders.

This crisis has made it difficult for farmers to obtain the required inputs and has changed farm management approaches. Financial sanctions, the closure of markets and borders, and disruptions to the transportation process have led to changes in the prices of production inputs and their availability. For example, at the beginning of this crisis which coincided with the spring planting, the access to the seeds of some crops in the market decreased and their prices increased dearly. Therefore, some farmers could not buy the seeds and changed their crops. The result of our survey shows that the farmers' resilience has been a key point in coping with pandemic circumstances. family farmers and small-scale farmers with less dependence on external inputs have been more resilient and they applied adaptive management approaches. 

Author Information

Maedeh Salimi

Centre for Sustainable Development and Environment (CENESTA)

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

For more information please contact: maede@cenesta.org