BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 5. The amount of wheat purchased from farmers in Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province under a guarantee since the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season (started March 28, 2023), increased by 75 percent, compared to the same period previous season, Director of Iran's East Azerbaijan Province Agriculture Department Akbar Fathi said, Trend reports.
Fathi noted that more than 420,000 tons of wheat worth 63 trillion rials (about $1.5 billion) have been purchased from farmers in the province under a guarantee within the mentioned period.
“Whereas, in the same period last season, the figure stood at approximately 240,000 tons,” he added.
The director also pointed out that 53,700 tons of wheat were purchased by the East Azerbaijan branch of the Central Union of Rural And Agricultural Cooperatives of Iran, while about 367,000 tons - by the East Azerbaijan branch of the Government Trading Company (GTC).
According to Fathi, so far, 33 trillion rials (about $787 million) has been paid to farmers for the purchased wheat.
“In addition, 23,900 tons of seed wheat were purchased from farmers in the province under a guarantee during the reporting period,” the official 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.
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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