BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 15
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
It is forecasted that 1.1 million tons of sugar beet will be harvested in Iran this planting year, Manager for ‘Sugar Beet Project’ of the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad, Peyman Hesadi said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
According to him, it is expected that more than 130,000 tons of sugar will be produced by harvesting this amount of sugar beet.
Hesadi added that sugar beet has been planted on more than 27,000 hectares of land this planting year.
The manager noted that about 70 percent ie 18,000 hectares of the land under sugar beet is in the Khuzestan Province (southwestern Iran).
"The volume of area under sugar beet has increased compared to last planting year. So, sugar beet was planted on about 16,400 hectares of land last year. About 950,000 tons of sugar beet were harvested from this land. This means that an average of 58 tons of sugar beet is harvested per hectare,” he said.
Hesadi stressed that Iran intends to grow about 5-7 million tons of sugar beet a year. Given the limitations of the industry, this goal can be achieved in the next 4 years.
The manager also said that it is possible to plant sugar beet in 30,000-50,000 hectares of land in Khuzestan Province with the increase of industrial potential and the launch of new sugar factories.
