Ukraine is waiting for the very promising market Iranian agricultural products to be opened up, Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Pavlenko said at a briefing last week.

"Among the interesting markets for which we’re waiting to be opened is the Iranian market. As soon as the sanctions are lifted, this [market] will give large potential for cooperation. The preliminary interest is 3 million tonnes of grain and a large amount of processed products. These are meat and dairy products," he said.

Pavlenko said that the opening of the market is a major political decision.

"You know that [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama has signed [the document] on the sanctions, but some procedures should be completed. This country [Iran] has money: according to our information, $84 billion of forex reserves. Iran is waiting for cooperation, in particular, with Ukrainian goods producers," the minister said.

Pavlenko said that the Indian market has a great deal of potential too and preliminary negotiations with the Indian embassy in Ukraine have been held.

"Now large batches of sunflower oil are being supplied to India. Yes, this is a processed product, with added value, but we see potential in other foods," the minister said.

He also said that the talks with Bangladesh were held, specifically on grain products.

The minister said that at present, China has the largest share of Ukrainian agricultural products exports.

In January-August 2015, 46.9% of Ukrainian agricultural products were exported to Asia ($4.2 billion), 25.7% to the EU ($2.3 billion), 13.7% to Africa ($1.2 billion), 10.8% to the CIS ($1.2 billion), 0.3% to the United States ($28.3 million) and 2.6% to other countries ($238.1 million).