BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 6. The amount of wheat purchased from farmers in Iran’s Semnan Province under a guarantee since the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season (started March 28, 2023), increased by 18 percent compared to the same period in the last season, said Lotfollah Rezaei, Deputy Director of Semnan Province Agriculture Department, Trend reports.
According to him, more than 76,000 tons of wheat worth 11.4 trillion rials (about $271 million) have been purchased from farmers in the province within the mentioned period.
“Meanwhile, in the same period last year, the volume of wheat purchased from farmers in the province was 64,200 tons,” the official said.
Rezaei added that so far, farmers have been paid about 8.5 trillion rials (about $202 million) for the purchased wheat, which is 72 percent of the total value. The remaining funds are planned to be paid in the coming days.
The deputy director also noted that the most wheat (35,000 tons) was purchased from farmers in Meyami County of the province.
Overall, 13 million tons of wheat are forecasted 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 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 up 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 for ordinary agricultural land.
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