Tehran , Iran, June 30
Trend:
Iran's Ministry of Agriculture is to implement ban on rice imports while 100,000 tons of rice are still stuck at customs, said the secretary of Iranian Rice Importers Association.
"The ban on rice imports will be implemented by Ministry of Agriculture; meanwhile, the Central Bank of Iran has stopped the allocation of official foreign currency of 42,000 per dollar to importers two weeks ago," said Massih Keshavarz, Trend reports citing ILNA.
"The Ministry of Agriculture announced in late May that rice imports is allowed during the harvest season in current Iranian year (started March 21, 2019)," he noted.
"The unilateral decision was made by Ministry of Agriculture, while the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade is opposing it," he said emphasizing the ban without any prior notification would have deep effect on the market.
"Around 600,000 tons of rice were imported from the start of current Iranian year until now and 450,000 tons of have been consumed," he added. "At the moment, 100,000 tons of imported rice are stored at customs."
"Iran's average monthly rice consumption per capita is 120,000 tons, with the figure increasing in some specific months," he said.
