BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 3. Circa 14,800 tons of wheat worth 28.6 trillion rials (about $682 million) were purchased from local farmers under a guarantee in Iran’s Ardabil Province from the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season in the country (started March 28, 2023) to August 2, 2023, Deputy Governor of Iran's Ardabil for Economic Affairs Yasir Abdollahi said, Trend reports.
Approximately 14.8 trillion rials, or $352 million, have been given to farmers thus far as part of the wheat purchase price, according to Abdollahi.
The deputy governor further stated that there are already 29 locations for the guaranteed purchase of wheat operating in the province.
He added that the province of Ardabil has 350,000 tons of wheat storage capacity. As a result, private sector warehouses have a capacity of 280,000 tons, compared to 70,000 tons for state-owned warehouses.
Overall, 13 million tons of wheat are forecast 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 the 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 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 were ordinary agricultural land.
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