Baku, Azerbaijan, April 5
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
Iran may increase imports of Kazakh grain in late April due to the projected drought in the country, the director of the export contracts department of "NC "Food Corporation" JSC Nurzhan Mukhamedzhanov, said at a press conference, Kazakh media outlets reported.
"Iran has established only 3 ways of import of wheat from Russia and Kazakhstan: swap operations, transit and temporary importation. However, Russian and Kazakh traders hope for a forecasted drought in Iran, which may open wider Iran’s wheat market for them," he said.
Mukhamedzhanov added that the preliminary estimates show that the the opening of the Iranian market will allow increasing the volumes of Kazakh wheat deliveries from 500,000 tons to 1 million tons per year.
Iran remains a self-sufficient country in the production of wheat for the past two years and imports wheat only for the further export after processing it into flour.
Wheat production in Iran in 2018 is forecasted at 12 million tons, which is a decrease of 11.1 percent compared to 2017, according to the report of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).