BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 6. The amount of wheat purchased from farmers in Iran’s Kurdistan Province under a guarantee from the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season in the country (started March 28, 2023) to August 4, 2023, increased by 65 percent compared to the same period in the last season, Director General of Iran’s Government Trading Corporation’s branch in Kurdistan Province Jamal Salehi said, Trend reports.
“In total, 800,000 tons of wheat worth approximately 120 trillion tials (about $2.86 billion) have been purchased from farmers under a guarantee in the province within the mentioned period,” he noted.
According to Salehi, so far, 3.23 trillion rials (about $76.5 million) has been paid to farmers for the purchased wheat.
The director general added that there are 82 centers operating in the province for guaranteed wheat purchasing. Currently, an average of 24,700 tons of wheat is purchased from farmers daily.
He also pointed out that, the largest amount of wheat was purchased in the province’s Bijar County (about 205,000 tons), Saqqez County (about 147,000 tons), and Ghorveh County (135,000 tons).
In the current season, wheat was planted on an area of nearly 590,000 hectares in the Kurdistan Province of Iran. It is expected that more than 1 million tons of wheat will be harvested in the province by the end of the current season, and 870,000 tons of it will be purchased under guarantee.
Overall, 13 million tons of wheat are forecast to be harvested in Iran for the current Iranian year (March 21, 2023, through March 19, 2024). Of that amount, 8–8.5 million tons are estimated to be purchased by the Iranian Government Trading Corporation (GTC).
Meanwhile, last Iranian year (March 21, 2022, through March 20, 2023), about 11.5 million tons of wheat were harvested in the country, of which 7.5 million tons were purchased by the GTC.
Last year, the price of 1 kg of wheat was set at 115,000 rials (about $2.74), while 1 kg of wheat is set at 150,000 rials (about $3.57) for the current season.
In total, wheat was planted on 5.95 million hectares of land in Iran in the current season. Of this, 3.96 million hectares accounted for dry-farming land, while 1.99 million hectares were ordinary agricultural land.
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