Gov’t Wheat Purchases Reach 8.8m Tons
EghtesadOnline: More than 8.87 million tons of wheat worth 116 trillion rials ($2.83 billion) have been purchased from local farmers by the government since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21), the head of Government Trading Corporation of Iran said.
Considered as a staple in Iran, wheat yields are purchased every crop year by the government to build up its reserves and supply the market over time. “This amount, once again, renders us self-sufficient,” Yazdan Seif was also quoted as saying by Fars News Agency. The official added that the southern Khuzestan Province with around 1.35 million tons tops the list of provinces from where the purchases were made. It was followed by Golestan, Fars, Kermanshah and Kurdestan. A record high of 14 million tons of wheat were domestically produced last year, more than 11.76 million tons of which worth over $4 billion were purchased by the government from local farmers at guaranteed prices. This helped Iran achieve self-sufficiency in wheat production after about a decade, according to Financial Tribune.