Baku, Azerbaijan, July 16
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Some 80 percent of Iran’s sugar reserves are ensured domestically and 20 percent are imported, Alireza Yazdani, executive official in the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture Jihad's Sugar Beet and Sugar Cane Project, Trend reports with reference to the ministry’s website.
He said that Iran needs about 2.2 million tons of sugar per year.
The official added that 1.4 million tons of sugar were produced last Iranian year (started March 21, 2018) and 2.01 million tons of sugar were produced in Iran in the previous Iranian year (started March 21, 2017). Noting that in 2017, 856,000 tons of sugar were imported, he added that sugar imports dropped and amounted to nearly 281,000 tons last year.
“In accordance with statistics from the Iranian customs administration, about 714,000 tons of raw sugar were imported since the beginning of this Iranian year (started March 21, 2019) until July 12,” he said.
He added that imports increased by 154 percent compared to the same period last year.