Tag: Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Company

Founded in 1961, the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Company made a record production of 100,000 tons of white sugar in 2002.

Haft Tapeh suffered a severe recession during Ahmadinejad’s time in 2006 when Khamenei eliminated the tariffs for sugar imports. The sugarcane workers staged protests the following year.

In 2012, the company was reconstructed with refurbished equipment aimed at increasing sugar production.

In January 2016 two young men, Mehrdad Rostami and Omid Asadbeigi who owned Zenus and Ariak Ltd. bought the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane complex at around one tenth of the actual price for 218 billion tomans in an auction.

The 24,000 hectare Haft Tapeh Sugarcane complex went into ruin after it was privatized.

In 2017, workers came out in force to protest the privatization of the company arguing that there were huge amounts of money being embezzled behind the scenes.

In 2018, the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane factory CEO Omid Asadbeigi was said to have run off after being charged with currency misconduct.

The workers once again started their protests in November which has continued for 25 days in protest to not receiving four months of their wages and the privatization of the company.

The contract for this massive complex has not been made public. It is not clear why the large factory was handed over to two young inexperienced men, who according to workers, did not know the first thing about sugarcane production.