UAE's Mirak cuts farming in Iran following strike

Dubai: The UAE's largest private agriculture firm has scaled back its activities in Iran following a strike by farmers there earlier this year, an executive said on Sunday.

Dubai-based Mirak Agricultural Services holds more than 200 hectares of farmland in the UAE and 16 hectares in Iran.

The company plans to focus expansion in the UAE, Nejdeh Ghadimi, assistant managing director, said. "We have confined our activity in Iran to a smaller area ...with [fewer] people ...This happened after a number of workers staged strikes," he said.

He declined to give more details on the strikes.

Mirak owns a farm in Heshetgerd, west of Iran's capital Tehran.

Ghadimi said it was easier to control immigrant workers in the UAE than farm labourers in Iran, where unions were strong.