Baku, Azerbaijan, March 1
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s strategic wheat reserves currently stand at 9.4 million tons, which is sufficient to meet the domestic demand for a ten-month period, the Islamic Republic’s Deputy Agriculture Minister Ali Ghanbari said, Mehr news agency reported March 1.
Iran’s annual wheat demand is about 11 million tons, the official said, forecasting that the country’s wheat output will reach 11 million tons in the next fiscal year(to start March 2017).
Iran's government purchased over 11 million tons of wheat, worth 147.5 trillion rials (each USD makes 32,400 rials) from farmers in the current fiscal year. The country plans to export its surplus wheat which is about 3 million tons.
Ghanbari further said that Iran’s sugar reserves stands at 260,000 tons.
Ghanbari, who heads the state-owned Government Trading Corporation of Iran, which is tasked with importing basic commodities for strategic reserves, said that the country’s strategic reserve of rice is about 100,000 tons.
He added that the administration has purchased 83,000 tons of rice from India, Pakistan and Uruguay, which will be imported into the country in three shipments within 2 months.
Iranian administration has recently decreased a 40-percent import tariff on rice import to 5 percent to keep prices in check in the run-up to the new Iranian year (March 21, 2017).
The annual consumption of rice in Iran is 3 million tons. Iran produces 2.2 million tons and imports 800,000 tons from India, Pakistan and Uruguay.
Ghanbari also put the volume of Iran’s oil reserves at 210,000 tons.
The administration has also purchased 800 tons butter from New Zealand and Europeancountries which will be imported soon.
The Iranian government has decreases tariff on butter import to 5 percent from 20 percent.
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