The barter deal with Iran exporting fertiliser and iron ore to Pakistan in exchange for wheat was deadlocked for months. PHOTO: FILE
Pakistan has so far not shipped any ship any wheat to Iran from a one-million ton barter deal agreed last August due to government disagreements, an executive from Pakistani grain exporter Seatrade Group said.
A first shipment of 100,000 tons was supposed to be delivered to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in mid-February, said the executive who declined to be named.
“The 100,000 tons is still in the pipeline, nothing has been shipped ... a government-to-government issue that needs to be resolved,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.
He declined to give further details on what the dispute was about, however industry sources told Reuters that it might involve finance disruptions from Iran’s side.
Iranian wheat imports are usually handled by the private sector and government, but in recent months the state had taken a bigger hand in purchases as trade finance had been tightened due to western sanctions aimed at Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.
The executive said Iranian inspectors had been to Pakistan this month to check the grain, which they say did not match their specifications.
“It is still an ongoing process and we do not have a shipping schedule yet, so it is hard to tell when the shipment will be made,” the executive said, adding initial negotiations on the barter deal were for 4.5 million tons, but so far only one million had been agreed on.
The barter deal, first proposed last year in March with Iran exporting fertiliser and iron ore to Pakistan in exchange for wheat, was deadlocked for months over price and quality.
In August, Pakistan agreed a price of $300 per ton, an official from the country’s Ministry of National Food Security and Research told Reuters.
Previously, Iran agreed to help build an oil refinery for Pakistan and supply the energy-hungry neighbour with natural gas in a barter deal for food, Iranian media reported on February 22.
Iran, which has huge reserves of gas but exports little due to sanctions, had also agreed to complete Pakistan’s part of a long-planned gas pipeline and accept payment in food for gas supplied through it.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2013.
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That's the thing about Iran. They act like they still have it altogether when they're an internal mess from the sanctions. Though that's not an Iran-centric thing. Any country with those sanctions would be an internal mess. The difference is, Pakistan keeps taking what they say as reality and even get their hopes up when the majority of it is exaggerated-ability bluffs and desperation. They aren't pushing that pipeline so hard because they care about your well being. It's about their own. They would not be so flexible to the extent of nearly begging. Oil rich countries are more likely to behave like someone in a power position because they know you want it and need it.