Wheat Self-Sufficiency to Continue Next year
EghtesadOnline: Iran is estimated to produce more than 10 million tons of wheat in the next fiscal year (starting March 21).
As a result, Iran will remain self-sufficient in wheat production for the third consecutive year, the Government Trading Corporation of Iran’s deputy for commercial affairs said.
“During the harvest season this year, GTC bought 8.78 million tons of wheat from farmers at guaranteed prices, of which more than 600,000 tons of wheat, flour and its by-products have been exported to Afghanistan, Iraq and Oman so far, registering an 11-fold increase compared with the similar period of last year. We also had durum wheat exports to the European Union member states, including Italy,” Hassan Abbasi Maroufan was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Iran exported its first wheat consignment of 29,630 tons to neighboring Oman on June 12, 2017, according to Financial Tribune.
The official added that over the last three years, domestic wheat production has experienced an uptrend that led to lower imports.
Iran imports wheat only to reexport its processed byproducts.
“In the last Iranian year (March 2016-17), close to 1 million tons of wheat were imported whereas since the beginning of the current year (March 21, 2017), nearly 55,000 tons of the grain have been imported,” Maroufan said.
According to Aydin Hamidi, the head of the board of directors at the Seed Science Society of Iran, every year about 1.2 million tons of wheat seeds are locally produced, which meets nearly the entire domestic demand.
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.
Every year, the government also buys strategic crops to control prices in the domestic market.
GTC is a government-owned company specializing in the purchase, import and distribution of essential foodstuff. It is the lever for enforcing market controls.
The company is also in charge of maintaining a supply of wheat, rice, cooking oil and meat, as the country’s strategic reserve of essential commodities.