BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 6. In total, 62,000 tons of wheat were purchased from local farmers under a guarantee in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province from the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season in the country (started March 28, 2023) to June 3, 2023, Director of the Agricultural Department of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Mohammad Reza Hosseini said, Trend reports.
Hosseini noted that this is the record figure in annual wheat purchasing in the province over the past years.
The director general added that wheat was planted on 32,000 hectares of land in the Sistan and Baluchestan provinces in the current planting year (September 23, 2022, through September 22, 2023). To date, wheat harvesting has been completed on 28,000 hectares of land.
According to him, so far, 5.58 trillion rials (about $133 million) have been paid to farmers for the purchased wheat, and the remaining funds will be paid gradually.
Overall, 13 million tons of wheat are forecasted to be harvested in Iran for the current Iranian year (March 21, 2023, through March 19, 2024). Of that amount, 8-8.5 million tons are estimated to be purchased by Iranian Government Trading Corporation (GTC).
Meanwhile, last Iranian year (March 21, 2022, through March 20, 2023), about 11.5 million tons of wheat were harvested in the country, of which 7.5 million tons were purchased by the GTC.
Last year, the price of 1 kg of wheat was set up at 115,000 rials (about $2.74), while, 1 kg of wheat is set at 150,000 rials (about $3.57) for the current season.
In total, wheat was planted on 5.95 million hectares of land in Iran in the current season. Of this, 3.96 million hectares accounted for dry-farming land, while 1.99 million hectares for ordinary agricultural land.
---
Follow the author on Twitter:@BaghishovElnur