BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 18. As many as 1.15 million tons of wheat worth more than 172 trillion rials (about $4.09 billion) have been purchased from farmers under a guarantee in Iran’s Kurdistan province (western Iran) since the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season (started March 28, 2023), an official of the Kurdistan Province Agriculture Department, Fereidoon Hamdei said, Trend reports.
According to Hamedi, in total, 1.32 million tons of wheat have been harvested in the province so far.
The official added that in the current season, wheat was planted on an area of nearly 590,000 hectares in the Kurdistan Province of Iran. Of that, 557,000 hectares were dry-farming land and 32,500 hectares were ordinary agricultural land.
He also said that on average, 2.1 tons of wheat were harvested per hectare of dry farming and 5 tons of wheat per hectare of ordinary agricultural land.
On average, around 250,000 tons of wheat are consumed annually in Iran’s Kurdistan Province. The remaining wheat is sent for consumption to other regions of the country where the need for wheat is not fully met.
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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