Baku, Azerbaijan, May 4
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran plans to save $550 million by increasing domestic sowing to provide the supply of oil seeds during current Iranian year (started on March 21, 2019), said Alireza Mohajer, Ministerial Advisor and Executive Director of National Oilseed Programme, Trend reports referring to the website of the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of Iran.
According to Mohajer, $450 million was saved last year by expanding the sowing areas of oil seeds in Iran.
"Despite Iran's northern and southern provinces having been affected by floods, 400,000 tons of oil seeds are expected to be produced in the country," he said. Mohajer added that this amount will meet 20 percent of Iran's demand for this year.
Noting that the imports of oil seeds are diminishing every year, the ministry official said that, given the 96-percent dependency of Iran on imports of oil seeds, the plan for sowing seeds was implemented starting from 2015.
"While 46,000 tons of oil seeds were produced in 2015, the production reached 340,000 tons last year (started on March 21, 2018). Thus, the production of oil seeds has increased by 7 percent in 3 years," he said.
Touching on the issue of devaluation, Mohajer indicated the importance to save foreign currency in the agricultural sector. He also said that enlarging the sowing areas would lead to a reduction in imports of not only oil seeds, but also of oil cake.