TEHRAN, October 8. /TASS/. Iran says it is ready to start supplying fish and seafood to Russia.
More than 10 major Iranian fishery companies have signaled their bid to discuss fish supplies to Russia, the head of the Iranian Fisheries Organization Hassan Salehi told IRNA news agency on Wednesday.
He said that Hormogzan Province, which produces at least 180,000 tons of fish a year, could alone meet 60% of demands of the Russian market. Fishermen from Bushehr Province in the south-west of Iran yearly produce up to 15,000 tons of shrimps in the Persian Gulf.
Russia came under Western sanctions, originally visa bans and asset freezes, for incorporation of Crimea in mid-March after a coup in Ukraine in February. Later, Western claims that Russia is taking part in hostilities in south-east Ukraine, which Moscow has repeatedly denied, resulted in more serious, sectoral restrictions.
In response, Moscow imposed on August 6 a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the EU, the United States and Norway.
The EU and the United States imposed the latest batch of sectoral sanctions on Russia on September 12 despite a deal on a ceasefire, signed in Minsk a week before, between Kiev and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in the south-east of Ukraine.