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Iranians fail to pay Indian rice exporters

09 February 2012 08:03 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Konul Jafarli - APA. Indiaâ€™s rice exporters have warned against extending credit to Iranian customers after its buyers defaulted on payments for up to 200,000 tonnes of the grain.

India is Iranâ€™s top rice supplier, accounting for 45 per cent of its annual imports of 1.2m tonnes. The defaults have affected rice shipments via Dubai over the past three months.

As international sanctions begin to tighten on Iran, the country is finding it difficult to repatriate hard currency earned from crude oil exports, its main foreign currency earner. Last month, Iran announced an 8 per cent devaluation of the rial, which has added to Iranâ€™s import costs. The depreciation has caused difficulties elsewhere. Last month, Ukraineâ€™s maize exports to Iran dropped 40 per cent because of payment problems.