The importance of paying attention to stone exports
Vice President of the Iranian Stone Association: In the field of stone, we must say that we are generally self-sufficient in terms of machinery and have no dependence outside the borders of Iran. In this way, we can easily bring the stone industry to our five-year export horizon in a short period of time.
According to the International Stone Exhibition of Iran, according to the official licenses issued by the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade last year, we should have 30 million tons of stone production annually in the country, while about 13.5 million tons of stone are extracted from mines. Takes.
Given that today the country's stone industry is fully self-sufficient and one hundred percent of domestic demand is met with the same 13.5 million tons, what is needed is the importance of paying attention to exports. In order to reach a capacity of 30 million tons of stone production and grow in this area, we must remove export barriers from the country's stone industry.
In the need to increase government financial support for miners, it should be said that it is worthwhile to look at the policies of other countries; For example, the Turkish government provides incentives for mining activists and tries to cover their expenses in areas such as participating in foreign exhibitions so that miners and economic activists in this field can have a better performance among foreigners, while in Iran. If artisans and miners want to participate in a foreign exhibition, they have to buy dollars from the open market, and they face so many problems that there is no economic justification for them to continue operating. If we can export our products in this industry, we will undoubtedly reach the production of 30 million tons that we envisage in a period of 5 years.
In the field of stone, we must say that we are generally self-sufficient in terms of machinery and have no dependence outside of Iran. In this way, we can easily bring the stone industry to the export target we have in the next five years, in a period of time; As if today we have good export statistics in this area. I believe that we need to identify the target markets for the country's stone exports, which, of course, is happening now. We export 50% of our cut stones to Iraq, and a total of 15 countries in the region are our target markets. If we develop this market with a collective wisdom and cooperation between the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, the Chamber of Commerce, the Iranian Stone Association, the Mining House and all the activists in this industry, we can definitely have significant exports to the countries of the region.
Malik Rahmati - Vice President of the Iranian Stone Association - Samat
