BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 23. Iran had cleared its entire debt of 350 trillion rials (around $8.33 billion) to its domestic wheat growers on October 22, 2023, said Mohammad Ali Nikbakht, Minister of Agriculture Jihad of Iran, Trend reports.
The minister noted that Iran had bought about 10.4 million tons of wheat worth 1.56 quadrillion rials (around $37.1 billion) from the farmers under a guarantee during the current harvest season (March 28 through October 22, 2023).
He also said that the amount of wheat bought this season was 44 percent higher than the previous one.
Nikbakht claimed that by buying this volume of wheat, the country had met its bread demand completely. He considered this one of the major successes of the current Iranian government (which came to power in August 2021) in the agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, last Iranian year (March 21, 2022 through March 20, 2023), a total of 7.5 million tons were purchased by the Iranian Government Trading Corporation (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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