Markets available in Iran

Press, 8 December 1982, Page 27

Markets available in Iran

Iran holds plenty of business opportunities for individuals prepared to visit the country, said a Christchurch exporter. Mr Bruce Fraser. However, the opportunities were there only for people selling goods considered essential in Iran. There was no demand for luxuries at present, said Mr Fraser, director of A. W. Fraser and Sons. Ltd. Mr Fraser has recently returned from a three-day business trip to Teheran. His company has been exporting bronze bars for machinery bearings since the Shah of Iran was deposed in 1979. He has orders and inquiries worth about $750,000. Some of the goods are already somewhere in Russia, making their way to their destination. Having a New Zealand trade consul in Iran was essential for individual business people to get into the country. Mr Fraser said. He remarked on the apparent normality of the city, considering the country was at war. Teheran was crowded with people and cars, he said. Apart from electronic goods such as television sets, there were plenty of con-

sumer goods in the shops, and food and clothing were plentiful. Women were working in all the normal occupations. Many wore the long, traditional robes, and all wore headscarves. The European women were also very conservatively dressed with low hemlines and no bare arms, Mr Fraser said. The women were freer in Iran than in Saudi Arabia, where he had also visited recently. Women in Saudi Arabia were not even allowed to drive cars.