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On Iran’s Border, Cooking Oil Trade Is a Snapshot of the Country’s Struggles
The war has exacerbated Iran’s economic crisis, forcing many to cross the border into Turkey to buy the most basic goods.
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Iranians carrying cooking oil on Wednesday at the Kapikoy border crossing between Turkey and Iran.
Credit...
Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times
By
Yeganeh Torbati
Reporting from Kapikoy, Turkey, a border crossing with Iran
April 25, 2026,
4:26 a.m. ET
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On Turkey’s 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.
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.
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.
“We just started doing this recently,” said Maryam, an Iranian woman who purchased four bottles of cooking oil on Wednesday with her husband, intending to sell them back home. “Cooking oil is better” than the cigarettes the couple usually buy and sell across the border, she said, because it brings greater profit.
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.
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.
The map shows the Kapikoy land crossing between eastern Turkey and northern Iran.
AZERBAIJAN
TURKEY
Caspian
Sea
Khoy
Van
IRAN
Kapikoy
land
crossing
Tehran
SYRIA
IRAQ
200 miles
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