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Iran to import rice from Thailand despite domestic production

Business Materials 5 January 2019 09:30 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 5

Trend:

While Iran’s Ministry of Agricultural Jihad assesses rice production and export in the country at an appropriate level, the chairman of the Association of Iranian Rice Importers rejects the ministry's statistics.

“According to our estimates, rice production in the country is not 2.200 million tons as the ministry claims,” Chairman of the Association of Iranian Rice Importers Morteza Shah-Hosseini told Trend.

Iran’s rice import in the year 2015 was about 745,000 tons, which reached 839,000 tons in 2016. In the year 2017, imports increased and reached 1.293 million tons. In the first 8 months of this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018), the imports of rice decreased by 12 percent compared to the same period previous year.

“Most of Iran’s imports are from India and Pakistan, but measures have been taken to import rice from Thailand,” said Shah-Hosseini.

“According to the Association’s assessments, 1.500 million tons of rice is produced annually,” he said.

Shah-Hosseini said exports of Iran’s rice are not officially available.

“Our prices are not consistent with world prices. Our rice price is about $1.5 per kilogram, which is twice the global price.”

“So far, two consignments have been exported to Canada, which are only for testing,” Shah-Hosseini said.

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