Iranian media have reported a new increase in the price of infant formula and announced that this trend has led to an increase in the price of infant formula in the market and its scarcity.
In a report, the state-run Eghtesadonline website quoted a citizen as saying, “In March, I bought two packages of infant formula for 830,000 rials (approximately $1.38), but now I have to pay almost this amount for one infant formula.”
The state TV news agency, IRIB News, also wrote in a report that from time to time we witness an increase in the price of infant formula or its scarcity in the market, which “contradicts the population’s youth plan.”
This news agency confirmed that the high price and scarcity of infant formula in the country were “emphasized by parents in their messages.”
In this regard, Eghtesadonline wrote that in mid-April, the spokesperson for the Food and Drug Administration cited the reason for the increase in the price of infant formula as “the producers’ request and in order to support them,” as well as the decision of the Market Regulation Headquarters.
According to reports, in late April, the acting head of the Natural Products Affairs Office of the Food and Drug Administration had announced that the increase in the price of “Infant Formula” compared to inflation “will not be significant.”
This is while Iranian media, citing the official statistics center, announced that in 2024, the price of Infant Formula increased by 57.8% compared to last year. Perhaps the noteworthy point is the difference between the inflation of infant formula and the country’s annual inflation, which has reached 38.8% in March and April 2024, according to the official Statistics Center.
In this regard, in part of a report by IRIB News, a citizen was quoted as saying: “Overnight, the price of infant formula has doubled, do you think the policy of rejuvenating the population is executable in this situation?”
The point that IRIB News refers to is regardless of the concern for providing the minimum necessities of the people and the necessity of paying attention to the primary needs of society. IRIB News, as an entity affiliated with the Iranian regime’s leader, seeks to fulfill the wishes of Ali Khamenei regarding rejuvenating the population. A subject that the regime’s Majlis (parliament) approved three years ago under the title of the “Population Rejuvenation Law.”
Mohammad Mokhber, as one of Ali Khamenei’s close associates and the Vice President of the regime’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, had also said last year: “We must pursue the youth population issue with all our might.”
These emphases and follow-ups come while last year families also faced a crisis of price and supply of infant formula.
In this regard, Fars News Agency, which is run by the Revolutionary Guards, reported on December 24, 2023, the failure of government agencies in supplying infant formula and wrote that families still complain about the shortage and high prices of some brands of infant formula.
The infant formula crisis reached a point in 2023 where the Food and Drug Administration, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Health of the Iranian regime, considered adding rules that would require pharmacies to only sell infant formula to buyers who would provide a newborn’s national code.
This action that, upon its implementation, created a new crisis in the pharmacies, and regime’s Mehr News Agency wrote in January 2024 that after the implementation of the newborn’s national code registration plan to receive infant formula from October 12, 2023, the payment of the foreign exchange share of infant formula to pharmacies is in a state of ambiguity.
Reviewing the events of the past year in the field of infant formula shows that families are in the worst possible conditions to obtain this food for infants, and despite the necessity of meeting the primary needs of society, officials have not been able to adopt the right policy in this sector.
