Tehran, Iran April 14
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iranian Minister of Agriculture Mahmoud Hojjati has said that in the current Iranian-calendar year (to end March 20, 2016), the country will need to import rice.
He said that the imported amount is calculated at below 1 million metric tons, Mehr news agency reported April 14.
Hojjati pointed out that Iran 's domestic consumption of rice is about 3 million metric tons a year, adding that this year's domestic production of rice is estimated to be no more than 2 million.
He stated that tariff policies are defined in order to make sure that the imported rice will not be cheaper than the Iranian-grown types.
He further pointed out that if the tariff policies fail, rice import will be banned.
Some 80 percent of rice the imported to Iran comes from India , said Masih Keshavarz, secretary of the association of Iranian rice importers on March 7.
He said that over 40 Indian rice brands can be found in the Iranian market.
The policy to increase rice import tariffs by even 40 percent is practically the first step towards supporting production trends inside the country, the official noted.
Hojjati also pointed on the country's wheat production and said that this year the domestic production of wheat is predicted to reach 11 million metric tons.
He concluded that there will be need to import close to 2 million metric tons of wheat to meet the domestic consumption.
Wheat trade balance will stand somewhere between -1.5 to -2 million metric tons, much lower than last year when it was -2.5 metric tons, he noted.
In the first 11 months of past Iranian fiscal year (March 21, 2014-Feb. 20), wheat worth $2.22 billion topped the list of Iran 's imported goods with 4.6 percent share from the country's total imports' value.
The Islamic Republic imported 6.72 million metric tons of wheat in the first 11 months of past fiscal year, indicating an increase by 98 percent in terms of volume year on year.
Iran's wheat imports witnessed a 76.83 percent rise during the mentioned period compared to the preceding year in terms of value.