BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 16. The guaranteed purchase of wheat from local farmers in Iran’s Ilam Province in the west of the country was completed on August 16, the Deputy Director of the Ilam Province Agricultural Department, Heshmatollah Zarrinjub, said in Trend reports.
The deputy director noted that since the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season in Iran (stamped March 28, 2023), a total of 324,000 tons of wheat have been purchased from farmers in Ilam Province under a guarantee.
"Meanwhile, in total, 385,000 tons of wheat were harvested in the province this season. Of that, 25,000 tons were seed wheat, and 36,000 tons were for farmers' own use," he added.
Zarrinjub also pointed out that the largest amount of wheat was purchased in the province’s Dehloran County—173,000 tons.
Reportedly, 135,000 hectares of wheat were planted in Iran's Ilam Province this season.
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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