According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, the headquarter for the development of science and technology of medicinal plants and Iranian medicine has aimed to create the foundations for presence of counseling companies in the area of international trade in medicinal herbs and herbal medicine, aiming to qualitatively and quantitatively develop the industry of medicinal herbs in the country.

One of the purposes of this headquarter is facilitation and creation of proper foundations for activities of related domestic companies in the area of international trade in medicinal herbs and herbal medicine. In addition, it is aimed to facilitate market access and export of products of medicinal plants by providing a suitable condition for increase of production of this strategic product in the country.

To this end, Alec Imad, CEO of one of the counseling companies in the international trade, participated in the mentioned meeting, in which several subjects were covered, including methods to increase the quality of products and packaging of various Iranian medicinal herbs and improved participation in the global market.

One of the guests from Australia stated: during my travels to several countries, including America, Canada, Berlin, China, Japan, Dubai, Italy, and France, one of the important issues was testing different tastes. Without a doubt, I can say that Iranian products have a high quality in this regard. He continued: one of the services provided by our company as an active institute in this area is recognition of economic opportunities and creation of a new attitude toward the export subject, so that manufactured products can be produced not in the form of raw material, but in the form of processed products and with a significantly higher added value.

Alec Imad pointed out that supply and sale of medicinal herb products in the form of raw material does not have the rationale for profit. He mentioned saffron as an example, stating: export of saffron in raw form cannot have a global sale to the extent of the by-products of it.

Moreover, he marked: according to the current statistics, 90% of saffron in the world is provided by Iran. However, Iran is ranked 17 in the world in terms of sale of saffron in global markets. Meanwhile, production of saffron in Iran was 336 tons in 2016, and India is identified as the second producer of saffron in the world with producing only 22 tons.

This representative of the Australian company pointed out: in 2016, sales rate of saffron in the world was more than eight billion dollars, from which share of Iran was 286 million dollars. This amount is less than four percent of global sale of saffron.

According to Imad, Spain, Italy, United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan are the main markets for global export of saffron. These countries buy saffron from Iran and supply the global market by changing the brands of this product.

He also mentioned that a joint cooperation agreement with Iran is being considered for needs assessment of the target market and supplying the needs of the market by producing products based on the needs of customers. It is not important for the product to be made with the best quality, but it is important that customers are satisfied with the product.