Producers Don't Want Support; Level the Playing Field

Seyed Saeed Rezvani, board member of the Iran Home Appliance Industries Association, presented a picture of the current state of the home appliance industry on the TV program 'Economy Table,' alongside Mostafa Pourdehghan, member of the Industries and Mines Committee of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Ezzatollah Zarei, spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, and Akbar Pazooki, head of the Tehran Home Appliance Sellers Guild. He covered market supply, production challenges, imports, and the need to create equal conditions for competitors.

Seyed Saeed Rizvani, a member of the Board of Directors of the Iran Home Appliance Industry Association, presented a picture of the current conditions of the home appliance industry in the television program "Economic Table" in the presence of Mustafa Pourdehghan, a member of the Islamic Parliament's Industries and Mines Commission, and Ezzatullah Zarei, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Security, and Mr. Akbar Pazuki, the head of the Tehran Home Appliances Sellers Union, in which the market supply, production challenges, the issue of imports and the need to create equal conditions for competition were considered.

Seyyed Saeed Rizvani, emphasizing the ability of domestic producers to respond to the market's needs, said that the home appliances industry has been able to meet the existing needs and that the goods are currently available in sufficient quantities in warehouses. According to him, even when the market was facing a shortage of goods, the domestic production sector was able to cover a significant part of the market's needs; An issue that he believes should be considered in decisions related to the future of this industry.

He continued, referring to his recent trips to Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Erbil, Iraq and Armenia in the form of export facilitation delegations of the Chamber of Commerce and examining the products available in the markets of these regions, and said that field observations show that with the huge investments made in the home appliances sector and the significant growth that has occurred in terms of quantity and quality in terms of quality, Iranian products have been able to compete with many products offered in these markets.

However, Seyed Saeed Rizvani did not consider the competition and presence in the export markets to be limited only to the quality of the product and pointed to a set of factors affecting the total cost of production. Limitations and increase in sea and land transportation costs, multiple growth of the price of raw materials, especially the raw materials of the parent companies, far more than the percentage of the increase in the exchange rate and subsequently reaching prices beyond the world prices, non-cooperation of the operating banks in providing liquidity even with rates equivalent to 38 and 48 percent (the rate of issuing special deposit bonds) and the lack of access to foreign exchange resources to buy raw materials, lack of energy and The lost production opportunities, the incorrect implementation of some laws, such as languishing and the import of manufactured goods instead of raw materials, were among the issues that he listed as serious challenges for domestic manufacturers.

From the point of view of the board member of the Home Appliance Industry Association, we can talk about the real competition between domestic and foreign goods when the conditions of both parties are also taken into consideration. He emphasized that the problem of producers is not only against the principle of import; Rather, he considered import to be constructive. What is important is that in the conditions of war and siege by sea, land and air, in such a way that the import of raw materials has been interrupted, and the producers of the country are faced with challenges and capacities lower than their actual capacity, and also when the warehouses of manufacturing factories are full of goods due to the reduction of the purchasing power of consumers, the import of goods made from routes such as bottoms in such a way that there is no after-sales service is nothing but a violation of the rights of consumers.

At a time when foreign companies left our markets at the height of the sanctions and the public and private production sector stood by the country's production (as in all the crises that occurred when the people stood by the country) and by improving the quality and quantity of production, they did not allow the market to remain empty of home appliance products. We are export platforms in neighboring countries.

This look was the focus of one of the most important parts of his speech; Where he emphasized that rather than asking for special "support", domestic producers want to remove obstacles that directly affect their production and competitiveness. From this point of view, the phrase "producers don't want support; "Level the playing field" is not a demand to limit competition, but an emphasis on providing the requirements of a true and fair competition.

Seyed Saeed Rizwani also addressed the issue of product prices and said that despite the continuous increase in production costs, since the beginning of the year and in line with the request of the organization to support consumers and producers, efforts have been made to minimize the increase in product prices, so that the growth of product prices has been at a limited and much lower level compared to the significant increase in production costs and prices of raw materials.

This part of the statement of one of the representatives of manufacturing companies provides a clear picture of one of the complexities of today's production; On the one hand, the unbridled increase in the cost of raw materials, transportation, currency and financing, energy supply has increased beyond the global prices, and on the other hand, the producer must try to market the product at a price that is commensurate with the purchasing power of the society. According to Rizvani, the continuation of these conditions without correcting some existing mechanisms makes it difficult for industrial units to plan long-term for continued survival and export.

The CEO of Nixan Industrial Group, referring to his experience of four decades in the home appliances industry, after explaining the production problems, neglecting the problems of the production units can target the livelihood of a large part of the society.

In general, the focus of Seyed Saeed Rizvani's words in this conversation was to defend a balanced view of the industry; A view that neither ignores the issue of competition nor removes the real challenges of production from the equation. From his point of view, today's household appliance industry needs stability, resourcefulness, planning and correct policies to create equal conditions for competition and arena in global markets before it needs temporary support.