“Harvest began around a week ago in the northeastern provinces, including West Azarbaijan and Ardabil. So far, close to 60,000 tons of the product have been harvested from 1,100 hectares,” Peyman Hesadi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official added that this year’s autumn cultivation of sugarbeet has begun over the past few days in warmer southern provinces like Khuzestan.
“We expect to harvest more than 1.2 million tons in the autumn cultivation,” he added.
Hesadi said sugarbeet production is now carried out under contract-based cultivation whereby farmers earn more profit and are, therefore, encouraged to plant sugarbeet rather than any other crop.