BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 26. Iran is making significant progress in achieving self-reliance in wheat production, said Saeed Rad, deputy minister of Agriculture Jihad, and executive director of Government Trading Corporation (GTC), Trend reports.
The deputy minister noted that Iran’s wheat imports have dropped from 7.3 million tons two years ago (March 21, 2021 through March 20, 2022) to 1.8 million tons this year (March 21, 2023 through March 19, 2024).
He attributed this to several measures, such as raising the guaranteed price of wheat for farmers, providing various loans, and expanding the cultivation area.
The director also said that Iran bought about 10.4 million tons of wheat from farmers in the last harvest season (March 28 through October 22, 2023), worth a total of 1.56 quadrillion rials (about $37.1 billion), which was a 44-percent increase compared to the previous season.
Reportedly, the goal for the current planting year (September 23, 2023 through September 21, 2024) is to plant wheat on 5.9 million hectares of land and harvest at least 14 million tons of wheat.
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