Baku, Azerbaijan, May 14
Trend:
Iran’s wheat production is expected to reach 13.4 million tons during the current crop year (started September 2017), Esmaeil Esfandiaripour, an official with Iran's agriculture ministry said.
The Iranian government has bought 1.2 million tons of wheat from the country’s farmers in the current year so far, Esfandiaripour, executive manager of the National Wheat Project—the government policy to purchase the crop from farmers at a guaranteed price — said, the press office of the ministry reported.
Esfandiaripour said that ecological fluctuations and drought damaged some rain-fed wheat cultivation areas in southern country, however in other regions, in particular in north and northwest of the country, performance of lands under rain-fed wheat farming is improved.
He forecasted that wheat production performance will be better than the preceding year, despite ecological problems.
Over 52 percent of Iran’s agricultural lands are under wheat farming. Iran’s total agricultural lands are about 12 million hectares.
The Iranian administration purchased 9 million tons of wheat from farmers last year (ended on March 20) to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat production. Iran’s wheat production reached 12.5 million tons that year.
Almost 7.5 million tons of wheat is used by bakery units in Iran and the country’s food industry also needs 2.5 million tons of wheat every year.
The country exported its surplus wheat to other countries including Iraq and Oman.