Baku, Azerbaijan, July 1
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has bought 4.298 million metric tons of wheat at 50.112 trillion rials (about $1.5 billion) from domestic farmers in the current year, said Heshmatollah Nazari, a member of the committee tasked with purchasing wheat.
Of the sum, 41.081 trillion rials (about $1.24 billion) has been paid to the farmers, Iran 's IRNA news agency reported July 1.
Khouzestan, Golestan, and Fars provinces were the leading wheat producers, with 958,269 metric tons, 851,074 metric tons, and 609,121 metric tons of output, respectively.
Iran expects to harvest more than 11 million metric tons of wheat in current year, helping bring down imports by 20 percent below two million metric tons.
Estimates of a better yield come despite strains on Iran's water resources.
Government's guaranteed purchases from Iranian wheat growers are estimated to reach 8 million metric tons, a growth of one million metric ton from the year before.
Iran's annual cereal production is estimated to rise to 19.8 million metric tons in 2015 from 19.1 million metric tons in 2014, according to the latest report released by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The report forecasts Iran's annual wheat production will increase to 13.5 million metric tons this year from 13 million metric tons the year before.
Edited by CN
