According to the head of Semnan Agricultural Jihad Organization, this will be the biggest silo in the east of the country, Financial Tribune reported.
“The silo is being built on over 10 hectares of land and has had 92% progress. It will be inaugurated in summer,” Hassan Miremad was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The Islamic Development Bank and the government hold 89.2% and 10.8% of shares in this project respectively.
“IDB has invested €18.96 million and the government around 190 billion rials [$1.34 million]. When inaugurated, the silo will help resolve a major part of the wheat storage problems in the region and the country by extension,” he said.
Miremad noted that Semnan is located at the crossroads of the North-South and East-West transit corridors, enjoys connectivity with the national railroads, neighbors nine other provinces, is located close to Tehran’s huge market and has favorable weather for storing grains and is the right location for building this capacious silo.
Land under wheat cultivation in Iran has reached 6 million hectares in this year’s cultivation season.
Head of National Wheat Farmers Empowerment Foundation Aliqoli Imani says the Agriculture Ministry’s data show this year wheat has been cultivated on 2 million hectares of irrigated land and 4 million hectares of rain-fed land.
This year’s wheat cultivated land equals the area that went under cultivation last year, which means production will likely remain the same as last year.
Iran bought up to 1 million tons of wheat in recent weeks on international markets, trade sources said at the close of 2019.
The purchase was made from Russia and some European Union countries, including Germany.
Most of the purchase was believed to have been undertaken by Iran’s state purchasing agency, the Government Trading Corporation of Iran, with private buying reported for shipment across the Caspian Sea.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization, Iran is the 11th biggest wheat producer in the world.
Prior to the recent import, Iran had been self-sufficient in meeting its wheat requirements since 2016.