Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 3
Trend:
Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade announced a ban on export of sugar.
The ministry said Sept. 3 that the decision was made by Iran’s Market Regulation Working Group.
The ministry in a letter tasked the Customs Administration Organization to implement the decree.
Earlier in July the Iranian government banned the export of 18 agricultural products “until further notice.”
These items included corn, wheat, flour, barley, oat, oilseeds, unprocessed oil, palm oil, alfalfa, straw and wheat straw, fish meal, bran, soybean meal, press cakes, fish feed, additives for fish feed, rye and sorghum.
The move came after the Iranian minister of industry, mine and trade on June 20 banned the import of 1,339 commodities categorized as "non-essential goods with domestic counterparts".
The decisions came as a move to save foreign currency, after the Iranian rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar on the unofficial market after President Donald Trump in May withdrew from the nuclear deal with Tehran.
Iran’s sugar beet production reached 8.07 million tons in the last fiscal year, ended March 20, 2018, which indicates a growth of 132 percent in the last five years.
Saccharum harvest also witnessed a 21 percent growth during the 5-year period and accounted to 7.92 million tons in the fiscal year to March 2018.
Iran’s overall sugar output in the last fiscal year surpassed 2.01 million tons, which is a new record in the 123-year history of the country’s sugar industry, according to the country’s officials.
Iran’s domestic demand for sugar stands at 2.2-2.4 million tons annually. The country supplies its imported sugar mainly from Brazil.
The main provinces producing sugar in the country are Khuzestan, West Azarbaijan and Khorasan Razavi.