Tehran, Iran, Sept. 24
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran's rice output is expected to reach 2.4 million metric tons in the current Iranian calendar year.
Iran's fiscal year starts on March 21.
Gholamreza Khankeshipour, an official with the Rice Research Institute of Iran, said that the country's production capacity is between 2.2 to 2.4 million metric tons, Iran's IRIB News Agency reported on September 24.
"This year the weather was good so the production is expected to reach 2.4 million metric tons," he said.
He went on to note that the country's domestic production is around 2.8 million metric tons, so only 400,000 metric tons of rice needs to be imported.
Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on September 21 that the Iranian government has purchased 2,000 metric tons of rice from domestic farmers in the past week.
In order to support domestic farmers, the government plans to buy some part of the farmers' crops.
The government has also increased the rice import tariff to 40 percent from the previous 20 percent.
Iran plans to reach self-sufficiency in rice production in the coming years.
According to the Agriculture Jihad ministry's plan, Iran was supposed to reach self-sufficiency in the rice production field by March 19, 2013, but officials announced that the plan needs another three years to be completed.
Meanwhile Iran still depends on rice imports for its domestic consumption.