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Iranian government wheat purchase from domestic farmers hits 6.5 million tonnes

Business Materials 19 August 2014 12:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 19

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Iranian government purchased 6.466 million tonnes of wheat from domestic farmers since the beginning of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21).

The total price of purchased wheat amounts to 68.58 trillion rials (about $2.58 billion based on official rate of 26,543 rials per each USD), Iran's Fars News Agency quoted Mohsen Maleki, director of special department for buying wheat, rice, and tea at Bank Sepah as saying Aug. 19.

The Iranian government has reportedly launched 712 centers for purchasing wheat from farmers in 31 provinces.

By producing 10.5 million tonnes of wheat, Iran reached self-sufficiency in wheat production in 2004 and during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami. But according to Iran's current president, Hassan Rouhani, the country's output was decrease by one million tonnes per year since 2004 and now the country needs to import 7.2 million tonnes to meet its domestic demands.

According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Iran produced 14 million tonnes of wheat in the previous fiscal year (which ended on March 20).

However, during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency Iran reportedly submitted false reports to FAO in regards to the country's wheat output.

Isa Kalantari, the secretary general of Iran's House of Farmers, previously said that the country's domestic need is around 13 million tonnes, which is even one million tonnes less than the announced production rate in previous year.

Iran customs administration's reports suggest that Iran imported 3.5 million and 6.7 million tonnes of wheat in the fiscal years of 1392 (ended on March 20, 2013) and 1391 (ended on March 20, 2012), respectively. Ahmadinejad's administration had put the production rate of the mentioned years at 13.5 and 14 million tonnes.

Actually, Iran's wheat imports in the calendar year of 1390 (ended March 20, 2011) were around 233,000 tonnes. So the country's imports were increased by 30 times in 1391.

Iran has imported 2.514 million tonnes of wheat in the first four months of the current year (March 21 - July 22).

Iranian media reports suggest that due to the low price, farmers are not willing to sell their wheat to the government and prefer to sell it to private concerns.

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