Hussein Kamali – also known as the Secretary General of Islamic Labor Party – said that in Iran under mullahs rule the ‘agricultural industry ‘was not in a good state’.
Mr Kamali issued his gloom-laden assessment of the Iranian economy at a speech in north-western city of Ardebil.
He said: “It is painful for us that between 80,000 and 90,000 economic and production units have been closed down or are faced with the danger of closure while we could have rebuilt and renewed them.
“This is supposed to be the year of support for Iranian capital and Iranian products, but it has failed for some products.
“We should be lamenting that instead of reliance on internal production, particularly in area of wheat production, we have to import from other countries.”
Speaking of the mounting jobless figures, he added: “The unemployment statistics are staggering. The country’s agricultural industry is in not in good state.”
His comments come after a recent report by mullahs’ Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines & Agriculture (ICCIM), which said that thousands of industrial centers had been closed down across Iran.
The state-run website ‘Iranian Economy’ also reported on January 2 this year that between 30 and 90 percent of industrial units in the country’s 31 provinces had been closed down.