Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 5
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s agriculture ministry has banned sugar import till the end of the current fiscal year (March 2018) due to surplus supply.
Iranian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ali Akbar Mehrfard told reporters that Iran has imported high volume of sugar during the second half of the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2017) as well as first six months of the current fiscal year.
Given the high amount of the stored strategic product as well as high sugar production in the country, it seems that Iran does not need to import sugar in the coming months.
However, he added that Iran may temporary lift ban by the end of current fiscal year, to meet the sugar demand for summer.
Iranians consume around 2.2 million tons of sugar per year, meanwhile the country's annual sugar production is around 1.5 million tons.
According to the Islamic Republic’s Customs Administration data, Iran has imported 708,000 tons of sugar, worth $356.4 million during the first seven months of current fiscal year (March 20-Oct. 22).
The imports indicate a rise by 73.46 percent in terms of volume and 32.52 percent in terms of value year-on-year.
Iranian government imposes ban on rice and sugar imports in various periods to support domestic producers.
In June 2016 the decision by Iranian government to ban importing sugar into the country led some chocolate manufacturers to halt production due to lack of the principal ingredients.