Baku, Azerbaijan, May 1
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
A senior Iranian trade official has said the country’s imports of staple food products over the last fiscal year (ended March 20) have witnessed a considerable slump.
Mojtaba Khosrotaj, the head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, has said the country in the Iranian calendar year corresponding to 2012/13 imported over 1.6 million tons of crude vegetable oils valued at $2 billion, which dropped to about one million ton in volume and $876 million in value over the last year, IRNA news agency reported May 1.
He also touched upon Iran’s imports of sugar, saying in 2012/13 the country imported 1.68 million tons of the commodity valued at $1 billion, which dropped to 666,000 tons in volume and $319 million in value.
Speaking about rice, he said the country imported 1.28 million tons valued at $1.3 billion four years ago, which fell to 828,000 tons valued at $681 million.
According to the official, the import of wheat has shrunk to 1.44 million tons ($367 million) over the last year from 6.7 million tons ($2.58 billion) in 2012/13.
Coming to the import of red meat, the figure has slumped to 93,000 tons ($384 million) from 117,000 tons ($644 million) in 2012/13.