Tehran, Iran, August 25
Trend:
A record high of over 9 million tons of wheat has been purchased by the government from local farmers at guaranteed prices, an official with Government Trading Corporation of Iran said.
“So far, 9,200,000 tons of wheat have been purchased at guaranteed prices,” Seyed Mo’men Niafar told IRIB news agency on August 25.
He added that the value of the purchased wheat stands at over 120,000 billion rials.
“73,000 billion rials has been so far paid to the farmers,” he said.
This year’s purchase shows a 5 percent growth compared to last year’s harvest season, according to Niafar.
The Iranian government is expected to purchase 10.5 million tons of wheat from the country’s farmers in the current crop year, started September 2017. The forecasted volume will be 1.5 million tons more than the purchase wheat in preceding year.
Every year, the government buys strategic crops, including wheat and oilseeds from local farmers at guaranteed prices to build up its strategic reserves and control prices in the domestic market.
More than 8.87 million tons of wheat worth 116 trillion rials (each US makes 42,000 rials) were purchased from Iranian farmers by the government last year. Iran’s wheat production reached 12.5 million tons in the period.
Almost 7.5 million tons of wheat is used by bakery units in Iran and the country’s food industry also needs 2.5 million tons of wheat every year.
