Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 19
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Rice farmers in northern Iran have set a new record in the output volume, harvesting about 2.3 million tons of the cereal grain over the first five months of the current fiscal year (started March 20).
Abbas Keshavarz, an Iranian deputy agriculture minister, has described the output as "unprecedented in decades", adding that suitable climate conditions have contributed to the output surge, ISNA news agency reported.
Simultaneously, the country imported over one million tons of rice to register 79 percent hike in volume terms compared to same period of time last year.
The country consumes about three million tons of rice per year and each Iranian averagely consumes about 38 kilograms of rice annually.
It appears that the high output of rice this year has caused confusion among the importers as about 1.8 million tons of rice was imported into the country. This is while the country’s total imports of rice over the last two years stood at 1.5 million tons.
According to Iran’s Customs Administration, the country imported worth of $995 million of rice over the first half of the current year, indicating a surge of 109 percent in value terms.