Eight Percent of Iranian Knowledge-Based Firms Active in Providing Food Security

“At present, nearly 800 knowledge-based companies are operating in the food and agriculture sector, which is a total of more than 10,100 knowledge-based firms in the country,” Javadi said.

He added that of the total agricultural knowledge-based companies, 172 companies (about 22%) are working in this sector.

“These companies are distributed in the value chain as follows; nearly 50 companies are active in the field of medicine, vaccines and disinfectants, 33 companies in the equipment sector, 54 companies in the feed and ration sector, 31 companies in the field of knowledge and management, and only 17 companies in the field of breeding in livestock, poultry and aquatic animals,” Javadi said.

He underlined the need to reduce severe dependencies in this industry, from the primary core to animal feed, equipment, and processing, saying, "In the Food Security Document Program of the country, the goal of self-sufficiency in livestock and poultry vaccines should be increased from the current 35% to 70%, but now only 50 companies are active in this sector."

Iranian Vice President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy Hossein Afshin announced in September a significant increase in the income of knowledge-based companies in the past Persian calendar year (ended on March 20).

“The income of these companies has reached 1,833 trillion tomans (Iran's currency), which has increased by 60% compared to the previous year,” Afshin said.

Noting that the share of sales of knowledge-based products has increased by 40% last year compared to the previous year, he added, “This figure indicates an 81% share of knowledge-based products in the total sales of technological companies, which indicates the high share of these companies in the national economy.”

“Start-up companies, which constitute 67% of all knowledge-based companies, have a small share in the knowledge-based economy due to their nature,” Afshin said.

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