Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 19
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iranian agriculture ministry will lift a ban on rice import on Dec. 21, Tasnim news agency reports.
The Iranian government bans rice import annually with only a few months of break to support domestic products.
The latest ban was imposed on July 21, 2016.
Iran imported 620,000 tons of rice, worth $520 million during the first eight months of the current fiscal year (started March 20, 2016). About 150,000 tons of rice was imported to the country during the ban period.
The country’s yearly rice consumption stands at some 3 million tons. Iran’s rice production stood at 1.8 million tons in 2015.
Iranian households regard the home-grown types of rice to be superior to those imported from India.
Rice is the staple product for almost half of the global population. Over 90 percent of the global rice output and consumption is concentrated in Asia, with China and India both the world’s largest producers and biggest consumers.