Iranian navy ships arrived in Tanzania.

Iranian navy ships arrived in Tanzania. (Taz).

Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that the Islamic Republic’s navy fleet reached Tanzania.

"The warships would harbor in Dar es Salaam port in coming says," Fars news agency quoted him on Feb.25.

Last year, in April, Sayyari also said that Iran's 34th fleet has started a journey to the Gulf of Aden and Bab el-Mandeb.


Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last November that “the advances in the Navy could not have been as outstanding as it is now; before the Revolution [1979], the sea had been downplayed in its prestige, grandeur, and strategic role in international politics; now however, the Navy have walked a long road, yet many miles should be covered to reach the optimal place”.

Related: Iran looking to lease land in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to grow rice, wheat.

Iran looking to lease land in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to grow rice, wheat.

Iran looking to lease land in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to grow rice, wheat. (Iranfrontpage).

Iran is reportedly looking to lease land in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania for large-scale food production to serve local and export markets.

More than 10 Iranian companies have expressed interest in growing and processing rice, corn and wheat in East Africa, Iranian Ambassador to Kenya Hadi Farajvand has said.

He said Iran is supporting mechanized agriculture beyond its borders, with companies leasing huge chunks of land and applying modern agricultural methods to grow food for export to Iran.

The companies are willing to establish manufacturing plants in the region to cater to the local market and to export to Iran, Farajvand said.

The move is also aimed at narrowing trade deficit with the Horn Africa countries, which is in Iran’s favor, he added.

The East African Community (EAC) mainly exports unprocessed agricultural products like tea, coffee and meat to Iran. It imports oil products, machinery and telecommunication equipment from the Middle Eastern country.

Local trade experts said the region should strive to export more processed goods to Iran, beginning this year.

“The lifting of sanctions on Iran will pave the way for EAC member states to forge closer ties with Iran, but we need to export value-added products if we are to tilt the balance of trade in our favor,” Peter Kiguta, director-general of Customs and Trade at the EAC, told the Geeska Afrika news agency.

The East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) expects exports to Iran to grow five-fold in one year with the opening of the market, it said.

Farajvand said the biggest challenge in fostering stronger trade ties between Iran and the EAC countries is the lack of political will in the region and limited information on the available opportunities in Iran.

He said many products from Iran are imported into the region through other countries, making the final product expensive. These imports include oil products, bitumen, ceramics and electricity equipment.

Iran’s Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati has said the government had envisioned investment on 500,000 hectares of farmland in a number of countries to produce food.

Last August, Agriculture Ministry’s Mohammad Reza Shafeinia said Iran had launched agricultural cultivation in Kazakhstan, marking its first farmland investment overseas.

Water-intensive rice and corn crops as well as oilseeds and livestock inputs have been cited by Agriculture Ministry officials as the target products which Iran seeks to grow on farmlands overseas.

Iran is pushing for development of 60,000 hectares of land to cultivate agricultural products in Brazil, Hojjati has said.

Food prices are a key driver of Iran’s double-digit inflation which shot over 40% under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Food security is a serious matter for Iran, given the size of its population which has grown over 80 million and seen its food basket grow smaller.

“Between 38-40% of the Iranian families’ economy is related to food which requires us to build a base for reducing prices of nutritional products and providing for facile access to them,” Shafeinia said. Hmmm.....Just imagine the pool of Shiite followers you can create....they did invent chess.

Quoting materials from Iran Front Page is permitted only if the source is mentioned by name.

Hungry China wants to 'borrow' land from 'bread basket' Ukraine for 50 years.

Source.

Hungry China wants to 'borrow' land from 'bread basket' Ukraine for 50 years.(RT).

Food demand in China is expected to grow along with industrialization, and China has been land-grabbing across the globe, with 7.4 million acres (3 million hectares) in Ukraine being the most recent prospect.

The South China Morning Post reported China’s Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) had a 50-year plan for crop and pig farming, spanning over 9 percent of Ukraine’s arable land.
If executed, the deal Kiev-based KSG agro would make Ukraine China's biggest overseas farming center.
However, in Kiev the proposal has caught officials by surprise.
Sergey Kasyanov, Chairman of KSG agro, explained the misunderstanding.
"We are not going to sell or transfer a lease or sublease to the Chinese. The project pertained to installing a drip irrigation system in those 3 million hectares in the next year,” Kasyanov told Vesti 24 in a TV interview.
China’s reported ‘land grab’ would include eastern territories near the Dnieper river, Kherson, and Crimea, well-known for its coastal beaches.
Ukraine lifted a ban on foreigners buying land last year.
“I don’t have any information on the subject, unfortunately. I know that Chinese companies occasionally show interest,” Igor Livin, the Chairman of the Association of the Ukrainian-Chinese Cooperation told Vesti 24.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Sergey Arbuzov, who is on an official trip to China, confirmed Ukraine is interested in attracting new investment from China, but made no mention of agriculture, instead focused on banks.
On Monday, the Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture and Food said China and Ukraine will become strategic partners.
“The expansion of agricultural products delivered to China will help ensure that the total share of trade with China reaches between 20-25 percent,” said Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, Itar-Itass reported.
A Chinese-Ukrainian cooperation could help Kiev increase its international trade, while Beijing could reach its goal of becoming 95 percent self-sufficient in food.
"China has a lot of agriculture experience and Ukraine has rich resources and is willing to collaborate with China. Our two countries seem to complement each other,” Chen Yuztsin, of the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine, said. 

Ukraine is home to 45 million people and boasts a gross domestic product of $176 billion. China’s accounts for about a fifth of the global population, with at 1.4 billion people living in the country. It is also the world’s second largest economy, with over 8 trillion in GDP.
China has upped its overseas farming investments to counter any future food shortages, and in 2013 bought Australia’s biggest cotton farm. The Post reported China has over 2 million hectares of land abroad that it uses for agriculture.