“Wheat cultivation started around Sept. 11 in the northwest of the country,” Ataollah Hashemi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
“The wheat bought by the government this year as part of its guaranteed purchase plan, which amounted to around 8 million tons, has been used as livestock and poultry feed for the most part since animal feed prices went up in the domestic market in the current year.”
Every year, the government buys strategic crops, including wheat, from local farmers at guaranteed prices to control prices, according to Financial Tribune.
According to Ali Qoli Imani, the deputy head of the National Wheat Farmers Empowerment Foundation, 8 million tons of wheat purchased by the government are worth 132 trillion rials ($1.16 billion).
With this amount, added the official, the country remains self sufficient in wheat production.
Iran has been self-sufficient in meeting domestic demand for wheat since 2016.
There have been no wheat imports since Hassan Rouhani was elected president. This is while Iran imported 5.7 million tons of wheat the year before Rouhani took office.
Iran imports wheat only to reexport it as processed byproducts.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization, Iran is the 11th biggest wheat producer in the world.