Iran’s largest ocean port reports increased operations for unloading staples despite a global outbreak of coronavirus that has affected trade activities across the world.
A local official in Chabahar said on Sunday that the port on the Sea of Oman was taking delivery of large cargoes of essential goods, adding that a ship carrying over 66,000 metric tons of sugar had docked at the port earlier in the day.
Behrooz Aghaei, who heads the local port authority in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, where the port of Chabahar is located, said the sugar cargo from Brazil is one of the largest docking at the port since last year when Iranian authorities allowed the port to become increasingly involved in processing large container ships.
Aghaei said that Chabahar, which is planned to become one of the largest and busiest ports in the region, had taken delivery of more than 560,000 tons of basic goods since late March and before the sugar cargo arrived from Brazil.
The Iranian government has been scrambling to get ahead of possible disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic as the global spread of the disease can hamper shipments of basic goods bound for the country.
Ports in southern Iran have been operating at almost full capacity to process such shipments despite ravages caused by the pandemic.
The government has tasked Chabahar, which include two commercial ports of Shahid Behehshti and Shahdi Kalantari, to take delivery of at least 50 percent of cargoes for essential products.
Aghaei said the decision to frequent Chabahr would make it easier to process staple cargoes that should ultimately reach areas in eastern Iran, adding that the new situation would also lead to more preparedness in the port to carry out large-scale unloading operations.