Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.11/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran plans to produce over 2.4 million tons of rice in the current Iranian calendar year which ends March 19, 2013, head of Iran's Rice Guild Association said on Tuesday.
The annual rice consumption in Iran stands around 2.8 million tons, so we only need to import less than 500,000 tons of rice this year, the IRIB News Agency quoted Jamil Alizadeh Shayegh as saying.
It is while based on the reports published earlier this month that Iran has imported 775,000 tons of rice valued at $758 million in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year which began on March 20.
Compared to the same time span in the previous year, figures show a 12.01 per cent increase in terms of value and a 2.35 per cent decrease in terms of volume.
India, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan were the main exporters of rice to Iran.
Alizadeh Shayegh said on December 8 that the imported Indian rice may be contaminated with chemicals like arsenic.
There are rumours that the Indian Basmati rice which has been imported recently are contaminated with chemicals and some Indian officials have implicitly confirmed the claim, the Mehr News Agency quoted him as saying.
"The government should conduct the necessary tests as soon as possible," he added.
He went on to note that Iran will soon import rice from Uruguay.