“This year, more than 125,000 hectares of farmlands have gone under colza cultivation. We plan to increase the figure to between 250,000 and 300,000 hectares next year,” Abbas Keshavarz was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Ninety-three percent of all the raw vegetable oil in the domestic market are imported, as domestic demand for raw vegetable oil stands at 1.5 million tons per annum.
Of all the vegetable oils consumed in Iran, 95% are extracted from soybean, sunflowers and palm. The Ministry of Agriculture plans to achieve 70% self-sufficiency in oilseed production within the next 10 years to curb the import of oilseeds and vegetable oil, Financial Tribune reported.
Per capita vegetable oil consumption in Iran is about 18-19 kilograms a year while the global average is 12 kilograms.