On Turkey\u2019s bustling border crossing with Iran, in a shed filled with boxes of cooking oil, a shopkeeper read aloud to his colleagues the latest news on his phone: Peace talks between the United States and Iran were postponed.<\/p>\n
For these merchants, the twists and turns of the war, and economic crisis in Iran, have brought an unexpected boon to their business. As the prices of basic goods have spiraled in Iran, they can sell olive, sunflower and corn oils for a modest profit to Iranians at the border, who will either sell the oil inside their country or use it themselves.<\/p>\n
Dozens of people were seen carrying multiple four- and five-liter bottles of oil as they walked from Turkey into Iran over the course of a single morning and afternoon. In interviews, shopkeepers said demand for cooking oil had spiked in recent days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just started doing this recently,\u201d said Maryam, an Iranian woman who purchased four bottles of cooking oil on Wednesday with her husband, intending to sell them back home. \u201cCooking oil is better\u201d than the cigarettes the couple usually buy and sell across the border, she said, because it brings greater profit.<\/p>\n
Maryam said she could buy a five-liter bottle in Turkey for a little over $10 and sell it inside Iran for cheaper than the going rate in shops there, making a small profit of around $2. She declined to give her full name, like most Iranians interviewed at the border, for fear of reprisal from the Iranian government.<\/p>\n
Other Iranians interviewed did not want to be identified at all. The oil vendors in Turkey also spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying they wanted the trade to remain discreet so that Turkish authorities would not put an end to it.<\/p>\n
The Kapikoy land crossing, near the city of Van, in eastern Turkey, has provided one of the few durable links between Iranians and the outside world during the war. The country\u2019s airspace has been closed for much of the past two months, though it reopened in recent days, and citizens have remained in the dark because of a continuing internet shutdown imposed by the government.<\/p>\n
The sharp increase in the trade of cooking oil is a potent indication of a spiraling inflation crisis that has put pressure on Iranian households for years, and which appears to have become especially severe in recent months. The inflation rate in Iran projected<\/a> by the International Monetary Fund for this year is nearly 70 percent, which would be the highest rate calculated by the I.M.F. for the country since at least 1980.<\/p>\n