BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 12. The amount of wheat purchased from local farmers in Iran’s Kerman Province under a guarantee since the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season in the country (started March 28, 2023) increased by 54 percent compared to the same period in the last season, Director General of Iran’s Government Trading Corporation’s branch in Kerman Province Dariush Maheri said, Trend reports.
According to him, a total of 247,000 tons of wheat were purchased from farmers under a guarantee in the province within the mentioned period, while in the same period last year, the figure stood at 160,000 tons.
The director general added that the guaranteed purchase of wheat in the province has already ended.
Maheri noted that so far, 28 trillion rials (about $667 million) has been paid to farmers for the purchased wheat, which is 96 percent of the total value. It is expected that the remaining 711 billion rials ($16.9 million) will be paid to farmers in the near future.
“All purchased wheat is stored in the province's warehouses. Another 160,000 tons of wheat should be brought from other provinces to meet the province's wheat needs,” he said.
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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