BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 9. The amount of wheat purchased from farmers in Iran’s Kurdistan Province under a guarantee since the beginning of the current wheat harvesting season in the country (started March 28, 2023) increased by 99 percent compared to the same period last season, Director General of Iran’s Government Trading Corporation’s branch in Kurdistan Province Jamal Salehi said, Trend reports.
According to Salehi, in total, 1.13 million tons of wheat worth approximately 169 trillion tials (about $4.02 billion) have been purchased from the province’s farmers under a guarantee during the reporting period.
The director general added that the largest amount of wheat was purchased in the province’s Bijar County (about 288,000 tons), Divandara County (196,000 tons), and Saqqez County (189,000 tons).
"On average, about 250,000 tons of wheat are consumed annually in Iran’s Kurdistan Province. The remaining wheat is sent for consumption to other regions of the country where the need for wheat is not fully met. So far, more than 445,000 tons of wheat have been sent to six provinces," he said.
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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