Posted on 05/24/2026 10:20:56 AM PDT by Red Badger
As food prices spiral and farms shut down across Iran, even establishment figures are openly questioning how a country capable of producing precision missiles cannot manufacture affordable cars or keep chicken within reach of ordinary families.
Former Industry Minister Mostafa Hashemitaba says the crisis is rooted not only in consumer markets but across the country’s collapsing production chain, from fertilizers to poultry farming.
Writing in Sharq on May 20, Hashemitaba said the price of a 50-kg bag of triple-phosphate fertilizer had jumped within months from three million rials to 70 million rials, a nearly 24-fold increase. Other fertilizers, he added, rose by more than 1,100 percent over the same period.
The result, he argued, has been the shutdown of farms and poultry operations, feeding directly into soaring prices for fruit, vegetables and meat.
A report published by Etemad described growing despair among Iranians struggling with job losses, displacement and rapidly rising living costs after the conflict.
Columnist Nayereh Khademi interviewed a 40-year-old university-educated man who said that after losing his job during the war, he briefly considered living in a cardboard box with his wife.
“What frightened me most was a future in which nothing was certain,” he said.
Another man described the horror of watching missile strikes destroy homes around him. When he realized his own house was still standing, he said he felt guilt rather than relief.
For many who lived through the attacks, the war’s aftermath brought a second shock: rapidly rising prices and shrinking access to basic necessities.
One resident interviewed by Etemad described it as “surreal” to walk past shops selling everyday goods that had suddenly become unaffordable.
Several Tehran newspapers reported last week that a kilogram of poultry meat had reached 1.5 million tomans, roughly one-tenth of an ordinary worker’s monthly salary.
Even some members of parliament, usually focused on rhetoric about national strength and resistance, publicly acknowledged the severity of rising food prices.
Hashemitaba contrasted the economic deterioration with what he described as unrealistic official ambitions elsewhere in the economy.
He recalled that in September 2023, then-President Ebrahim Raisi’s industry minister proudly showed him an electric vehicle and promised that 100,000 units would be produced by March. By spring, he wrote, it became clear that the display model was effectively the factory’s only output.
“How can a country that manufactures precision missiles fail to produce cars?” Hashemitaba wrote.
The worsening economic picture is also reinforcing arguments inside parts of Iran’s political establishment that some form of relief through negotiations with Washington may be unavoidable after months of war and financial turmoil.
While hardliners continue to frame diplomacy as resistance management rather than compromise, even some conservative figures have increasingly acknowledged the scale of economic pressure facing ordinary Iranians.
The strain is now extending beyond households. Cafés and restaurants in Tehran that once offered a temporary escape from political tensions and economic anxiety are also reportedly struggling to survive amid surging supply costs.
Government officials, including President Massoud Pezeshkian, who once tried to downplay the scale of the crisis, have increasingly acknowledged the depth of the country’s economic problems.
But hardline critics on Thursday attacked Pezeshkian simply for publicly recognizing the extent of public hardship—a reaction that underscored how disconnected parts of the political establishment appear from the realities facing many ordinary Iranians.
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Pig farms are pretty hardy....
The Soviet Union was kind of strange. They were unable to provide consumer goods in any quantity, nobody wanted to buy communist made toasters, or washing machines, or cars, if they could help it. In East Germany there was a Waiting List if you wanted a Trabant. A crappy 3-cylinder two-stroke engine, body made of compressed wool and cardboard composite. Popular colors included baby shît green. It was customary to put in a request upon the birth of a child. It took years to get approval.
But they sure had ICBMs and hydrogen weapons, and a serious space program.
Workers of the world Untie!..............
I raise three-legged chickens, I’ll sell them some, if I can catch them.
The Iranian Revolution is morally bankrupt. No one should have to live like that to support fanatics.
Yes it’s why they are putting hundreds in a prison round up 600 so far.
The missing count is missing too.
It is bad enough that they shut down the Internet. A man with a Starlink was beaten to death after being discovered. It’s obvious the regime has a whole lot of things it rather stay hidden.
We're $140 Trillion in debt.
My favorite chicken quote (movie and novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins):
“Someday, if that Sissy Hankshaw ever shows up here again, I’m gonna teach her how to hypnotize a chicken. Chickens are the easiest critters on Earth to hypnotize.”
-—said by Bonanza Jellybean.
Then....charge it. What’s in your wallet?
It's more like "What's in the other guy's wallet? Charge him."
You are correct. The US can build F-35s, but people can’t afford housing or health insurance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.