Iranian women shop at Tehran's ancient Grand Bazaar in Tehran on July 28, 2018. (AFP photo)
TEHRAN, July 30 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian trade official said that Tehran is looking for potential solutions to maintain trade with Africa by bartering oil products for gold, Press TV reported on Monday.
Hassan Khosrowjerdi, the president of Iran-Africa Council for Economic Cooperation, said that with the U.S. sanctions in prospect, banking problems would be Iran's biggest challenge for trading with other countries.
This could be resolved by establishing barter mechanisms with other countries, including those in Africa, Khosrowjerdi said, adding that using bartering schemes is the best way to facilitate trade between Iran and Africa, specifically when the sanctions return.
He said one key item which Iran was specifically interested to the same effect is gold.
Khosrowjerdi did not mention any specific country with which Iran was considering to barter its products with gold, however, Ghana, Africa's second biggest gold exporter after South Africa, could be a primary target, according to the report.
Iran is exporting a wide range of oil products to Ghana including tar and various kinds of industrial oil.
Iran has been primarily buying gold from the UAE and South Africa with some reports already emerging in the media that the country has intensified its purchases of the precious metal over the past few years.