Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.18/ Trend F.Karimov/
Iran will face a one million ton potato deficit in the current Iranian calendar year which ends March 20, 2014, ISNA quoted head of the union of Iranian potato farmers Hassan Mohammadi as saying.
Each kilogramme of potato is bought from farmers at 10,000 rials, about $0.4 based on the US dollar exchange rate of 24,900 rials, he said.
Brokers and intermediary dealers sell potatoes with a 100 per cent increase to the market, he added.
Some 2.5 million tons of potatoes will be harvested across the country, he noted.
Per capita consumption of potato is currently about 45 kilogrammes. So, the country will face a one million ton potato deficit in the current year, he said.
In May, the Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Organisation of Iran, Kioumars Fathollah Kermanshahi, said Iran's potato exports stood at 654 tons last Iranian calendar year which ended March 20.
The country earned $226 million from exporting potatoes in the previous year, which is 62.6 per cent more than during the preceding year, the IRNA News Agency quoted him as saying.
Iran's potato exports also faced an 87.4 per cent increase in terms of weight, he explained.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were the main importers of Iranian potatoes, he added.
Iran's per capita potato consumption stands at 45 kilogrammes per year in the previous year.
Esmaeil Abbaspour, an official with the Agricultural Jihad Ministry said in February that Iran will not import potatoes in the current Iranian calendar year which started March 21.
The head of Iran's Union of Seed Potato Producers also said in February that the country currently produces 600,000 tons of potato more than the nation's domestic consumption, so there is no need to import potato from neighbouring countries.