Azerbaijan, Baku, September 11 /Trend N. Umid/
Iran's administration increased a guaranteed purchase price of wheat from farmers from 8000 rials to 10500 rials per kilogram (which is about $0.42 based on the official rate of 24,744 rials per each dollar), Iranian government speaker Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said, ISNA news agency reported.
He went on to note that each kilogram of imported wheat costs about 8500 rials for administration, adding that, government intends to take advantage of available opportunities to increase domestic wheat production.
On July 5, Fars News Agency quoted Iranian Deputy Agriculture Minister Jasem Saedi as saying that each kilogram of wheat costs over 8500 rials for farmers.
The State Commerce Company imports wheat at $360-370 (8.9-9.1 million rials) per ton or 11,000 to 12,000 rials per kilogram.
Iran's wheat imports decreased by 60 percent in the first four months of the current solar year (started in March 21). The country imported some 963,000 tons of wheat in the period.
The imported wheat was valued at $400 million. Switzerland, Great Britain, and Turkey were the main exporters of wheat to Iran.
Iran imported 6.5 million tons of wheat worth $2.5 billion during the last solar year.
The country plans to produce 12 million tons of wheat by the end of the current solar year (March 20, 2014), Deputy Agriculture Minister Nasser Tavakoli said on Tuesday.
"Iran also plans to provide 300,000 tons of wheat seed for next year," the ISNA News Agency quoted Tavakoli as saying.
Iran's former Industry Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said in July that the government has bought eight trillion rials (about $650 million) worth of wheat from domestic buyers since the beginning of the current Iranian solar year, the Tasnim News Agency.
Farmers sold 1.1 million tons of wheat to the government during the aforementioned period, up 16 per cent year on year.