DUBAI: Iran has raised the import tariff for basmati rice to 45 per cent from four per cent, as Tehran seeks to limit incoming shipments, an official said on Monday.

‘This year the rice production in Iran is good and so as part of our strategic policy we need to protect prices so that’s why the tariff was raised,’ an official from the commercial section of Iran’s consulate in the United Arab Emirates told Reuters.

Traders in the United Arab Emirates shipping basmati rice from Indian and Pakistani origins said that the new tariff imposed by Iran was cutting deeply into their profits.

‘For so many rice traders sending rice to Iran during this time is simply not worth it, that’s why the trade has almost stopped for now,’ said Sudhakar Tomar, managing director of Hakan Agro DMCC, one of the leading food commodities trading company in the Gulf region.On Dec 21 Iran plans to review the tariff once more, said the embassy official.

‘There is no ban on trade, this is just a strategy that many countries use to protect there local markets and it will be reviewed,’ he added.— Reuters