Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.23/ Trend, F. Milad
Iran plans to import 170,000 tons of rice from India in order to lower market prices.
Requests for importing 2,042,000 tons of rice were registered during a mere four-month period spanning August 22 to December 20.
According to Mehdi Kabuli, an official with the country's Agricultural Jihad Ministry, Iran needs to import 500,000 tons of rice each year.
Iran plans to produce over 2.4 million tons of rice this Iranian calendar year, the ISNA News Agency quoted Kabuli as saying.
Annual rice consumption in Iran stands around 2.8 million tons, therefore we only need to import less than 500,000 tons of rice this year, he said.
Referring to the fact that Iran is currently importing more than the country's needs, he went on to note that the agriculture ministry plans to store the rice for the future and there is no need for farmers to worry.
"The quality and price of Iranian rice is really reasonable, farmers can easily sell their products," he added.
Based on reports, Iran imported 775,000 tons of rice, valued at $758 million, just during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year.
Compared to the same time span during the previous year, the figures show a 12.01 percent increase in terms of value, and 2.35 percent decrease in terms of volume.
India, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan were the main exporters of rice to Iran.
Iranian Deputy Agricultural Jihad Minister Jahangir Porhemmat said last month that Iran will reach self-sufficiency in rice production during the next Iranian calendar year which starts on March 20.
According to the Agriculture Jihad ministry's plan, Iran was supposed to reach self-sufficiency in the rice production field by the end of the current Iranian calendar year on March 19, 2013, but officials announced in November, 2012, that the plan needs around 3 more years to be completed.
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