Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 24
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s wheat production has reached 14 million tons during the current year, Hassan Abbasi Maroufan, deputy head of the Government Trading Corporation (GTC), said.
The Iranian government has purchased over 11.5 million tons of wheat, worth 146.2 trillion rials (each USD makes 31,406 rials) from the farmers, Abbasi Maroufan said, Mehr news agency reported Sept. 24.
The official further said that in the current crop year (started Sept. 21), about 5.75 million hectares of land plots will go under wheat farming, of them 2.04 million hectares are irrigated and 3.71 million hectares are rain-fed.
Iran plans to export its surplus wheat to Iraq and Afghanistan in flour form.
Almost 7.5 million tons of wheat is used by bakery units in Iran and the country’s food industry also needs 2.5 million tons of wheat every year. Adding the amount considered as strategic reserves to the figure, the Islamic Republic needs over 13 million tons of wheat annually.
Last week Ali Ghanbari, the country’s deputy agriculture minister, said that Iran lifted the ban on wheat export and the first cargoes could be transported to Turkey and Italy.