BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The amount of wheat purchased from local farmers in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province under a guarantee since the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season in the country (started March 28, 2023), increased by 62 percent compared to the same period last season, Director General of Iran’s Government Trading Corporation’s branch in the province Omid Zeynali said, Trend reports.
Zeynali noted that 674,000 tons of wheat worth approximately 100 trillion rials (about $2.38 billion) have been purchased from farmers under a guarantee in the province for the reporting period.
The director general added that so far, farmers have been paid approximately 63.3 trillion rials (about $1.5 billion) for the purchased wheat, which is accounting for 62 percent of total value.
According to him, the largest amount of wheat was purchased in the province’s Bukan County (98,000 tons), Piranshahr County (78,000 tons), and Naqadeh County (63,000 tons).
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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