BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 19. 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 42 percent compared to the same period of the previous season, Iranian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Jihad and Executive Director of Iranian Government Trading Corporation (GTC) Saeed Rad said, Trend reports.
According to him, a total of 9.87 million tons of wheat were purchased from local farmers in the country under a guarantee within the specified period.
"Of the mentioned volume, 46 percent was purchased in four provinces: Khuzestan, Kurdistan, Fars, and Kermanshah provinces of Iran," Rad added.
The deputy minister did not provide any information about the value of wheat purchased during the mentioned period but noted that 620 trillion rials (about $14.8 billion) have been paid to farmers for purchased wheat. He also added that another 80 trillion rials (about $1.9 billion) are expected to be paid to farmers in the coming days.
Rad said that the total value of the wheat to be purchased in Iran under guarantee will reach 1.5 quadrillion rials (about $35.7 billion) in the current Iranian year (March 21, 2023 through March 19, 2024).
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.
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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