BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 25. The amount of wheat purchased from local farmers in Iran under a guarantee since the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season (started March 28, 2023), increased by 28 percent compared to the same period of the previous season, Executive Director of the Iranian Government Trading Corporation (GTC), Saeed Rad said, Trend reports.
“In total, over 4.77 million tons of wheat from local farmers under a guarantee within the mentioned period,” Rad added.
The director added that currently, the guaranteed wheat purchasing continues in 28 out of 31 provinces of the country. So far, the largest amount of wheat was purchased in Khuzestan Province - 1.77 million tons, Fars Province - 747,000 tons, and Golestan Province - 490,000 tons.
According to him, so far, about 506 trillion rials (about $12 billion) have been paid to farmers for the purchased wheat. Steps will be taken to pay the remaining funds.
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.
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