Maryam Ghavam‑Ma’navi, secretary of the Association of Raw Sugar Refiners, warned that sugar refineries could shut down due to insufficient imports and called for urgent action to secure raw materials.
According to AgroFoodNews (the food and agriculture industry news outlet), Ghavam‑Ma’navi told an AgroFoodNews reporter, while explaining the latest situation in the sugar market, that conditions are “highly disorganized.” She said that, at present, virtually none of the suppliers sell sugar at the official (regulated) price of 69,690 tomans, and sales are taking place at higher prices. As a result, she expects the official sugar price to be revised upward within the next day or two.
She added that the Consumer and Producer Protection Organization has held meetings with the association in recent days and has received price analyses; therefore, the likelihood of a price adjustment in the coming days is very serious.
Referring to the country’s annual sugar needs, she stated: annual sugar consumption is about 2.5 million tons. Of this, roughly 1.5 million tons are supplied by domestic production, and to meet total demand, at least 1 million tons of imports are required. If these imports do not take place, raw sugar refining factories will effectively be forced to shut down.
Criticizing the situation of supplying refineries with raw materials, she said the core problem is the lack of inputs. Some factories have been compelled to stop their production lines because they have not been provided with raw sugar, and under the current conditions—especially with disruptions caused by the war—imports have not occurred either. For this reason, a number of sugar refineries are currently closed.
She also described follow-ups made before the New Year: she said she had multiple negotiations with Mr. Fathi and obtained an approval from the Market Regulation Headquarters working group stating that, as the only cooperative responsible for meeting Iran’s sugar needs (with refineries among its members), the cooperative should be allowed to place orders and import sugar. However, this request was not implemented. She argued that if permission had been granted and the cooperative had proceeded, at least 500,000 tons of sugar would have entered the country, preventing the current crisis and avoiding shutdowns.
On government price policy, she said when no one is willing to sell at the official price, it is clear that the regulated price is unrealistic and the market moves toward non-transparent transactions. The government must either abandon administered pricing or set a correct, realistic price aligned with costs. When the official price is unrealistic, under-the-table and off-invoice practices spread and the actual price becomes unclear. In her view, if the government steps away from price controls, the market will gradually find its balance.
She said the main problem for refineries is with the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad, not the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade. She explained that the ministry tells producers it will allocate a three‑thousand‑ton quota, but does not provide it directly; instead it says the producer must import raw sugar itself and later the government will pay the difference in value. For a refinery, importing only 3,000 tons from distant origins such as Brazil is not economical, forcing them to source from the Persian Gulf region, which raises the final cost.
She continued that they proposed assigning procurement of raw sugar to the cooperative—since it is the only specialized cooperative in the field—and then distributing the raw sugar among member factories. She said they have letters and approvals from the Presidency, the Minister of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry, and even the Market Regulation Headquarters working group, but in practice the Ministry of Agriculture and Mr. Fathi did not act on the proposal. Follow-ups during Ms. Moshiri’s tenure and later Mr. Fathi’s did not yield results, and now, with intensified war-related disruptions, pressure on the refining industry has increased.
In closing, she emphasized that if policymakers had heeded expert warnings and opened a path for targeted imports through a single cooperative, the sugar shortage would not have escalated to this level and refineries would not be shutting down. She said reforming import policy and eliminating administered pricing are the two urgent requirements to restore balance to the sugar market.
