BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 23
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
About 18 percent of Iran's cooking oil needs will be provided by the domestic production, Alireza Mohajer, Ministerial Advisor and Executive Director of National Oilseed Programme, told the Young Journalists Club (YJC), Trend reports.
According to Mohajer, the country plans to harvest 360,000 tons of rapeseed in the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020) and 130,000 tons of cooking oil will be processed from it.
Mohajer added that according to the statistics, so far, 95,000 tons of rapeseed worth 4 trillion rials (about $95.2 million) have been purchased from farmers.
The official said that currently there are a number of problems in the field of cooking oil supply from seeds such as rapeseed. The main problem is that the price of oilseeds does not increase. However, if prices rise, farmers will be interested in planting rapeseed.
Mohajer said that it is possible to save $3 billion on the import of oilseeds and soybeans with increasing domestic production of oilseeds.
In Iran, 1 kg of rapeseed is purchased from farmers for 46,600 rials (about $1.1).