Tehran, May 22 -- As food prices spiral out of control and farms across Iran are forced to close down, even establishment figures have taken to openly questioning administration's decisions, noting how the country is capable of rapid precision missile production, but its residents are no longer capable of purchasing food.
According to former Industry Minister Mostafa Hashemitaba, the current crisis is rooted not only in consumer markets but across the country's collapsing production chain, from fertilisers to poultry farming.
Writing in Sharq on May 20, Hashemitaba said the price of a 50-kg bag of triple-phosphate fertiliser had seen a near 24-fold increase, jumping within months from three million rials to 70 million rials. Other fertili...