TEHRAN, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran has sent a ship with 180 tonnes of fruit and vegetable to Qatar as Doha was caught in the hardship of food supplies following a diplomatic row with its Arab neighbors, Press TV reported on Wednesday.
Iran's shipment of fruit and vegetable was made on Tuesday from the southern port of Bandar Lengeh in Hormozgan Province.
"The cargo was sent in ten 40-feet refrigerated containers," Mahmoud Saberi, the navigation director of Bandar Lengeh, was quoted as saying.
"Bandar Lengeh is fully prepared to send all the products that Qatar requires by ships," he added.
Also, Khalil Qasemi, the director of Hormozgan Department of Industries, Mine and Trade, said that increasing food exports to Qatar is top on the agenda of the trade activities of the province.
Iran views Qatar as a profitable market for its food products, he said.
On Sunday, deputy head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization, Jalil Eslami, announced that Iran's southern ports in the Persian Gulf are all prepared to send goods to Qatar.
"We are ready to load and send materials and goods needed by the Qataris from the ports in southern Iran," Eslami said, adding that a consignment of commodities had already been sent from Iran's Bushehr port to Qatar.
The official said that the traffic of cargo vessels between the Iranian and Qatari ports faces no problems, and negotiations are underway between Tehran and Doha to dispatch goods to Qatar.
Also, Iran's national flag carrier, Iran Air, has announced that it has carried four consignments of foodstuff to Qatar after the Arab country was isolated and sanctioned by its other Arab neighbors.
The Saudi-led coalition against gas-rich Qatar has cut diplomatic ties with Doha. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State said on Saturday that the sanctions against Qatar are to urge the latter "to stop support and financing of extremism and terrorism."
Doha has dismissed all the allegations.
