BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
A total of 5.5 million tons of potatoes were grown in Iran over the last planting year (from October 23, 2019, through October 21, 2020), Deputy Minister of Agriculture Jihad and Director General of the ministry’s Fodder and Vegetable Production Bureau, Hossein Asghari said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
The deputy minister noted that potatoes were planted on 149,000 hectares of land in Iran during last year.
“The potato is grown per hectare increased by 500 kilograms to 37.1 tons in the last planting year. Thus, 36.6 tons of potatoes were grown per hectare in the preceding planting year,” he said.
Asghari added that Iran exported 950,000 tons of potatoes within the last Iranian year (from March 20, 2020, through March 20, 2021). This is an increase of about 83 percent compared to the preceding Iranian year (from March 21, 2019, through March 19, 2020). So, Iran's exports amounted to about 518,000 tons in the preceding Iranian year.
The director-general stressed that it is planned to harvest 5.34 million tons of potatoes from 142,000 hectares of land in the current planting year (from October 22, 2020, through October 23, 2021).
According to him, the price of 1 kilogram of potatoes in Iran was 21,500 rials (about 51 cents) in arable lands and 27,500 rials (about 65 cents) in fruit and vegetable centers last Iranian year.