Atora Hashemi, head of the Iranian national syndicate of wheat farmers, said on Sunday that wheat imports to Iran are expected to reach around 4.5 million tonnes (MT) between late March and late March.
He said that Iran’s domestic wheat production has declined to about 11 million mt a year to 5 million mt or 31% per year for the April-August harvest season, adding that government purchases of locally produced wheat have fallen from 4.4 million mt or 36% to 7.6 million mt over the same period.
Hashemi said the value of wheat purchased from Iranian farmers was around 1600 trillion rials (1.74 billion people) this year.
He said the decline in household wheat crops was largely due to droughts that affected arid land agriculture across Iran and government purchase rates lower than free market prices.
Officials from the Iranian Agriculture Ministry said in April that they could be forced to import up to 6 million mt of wheat until this calendar year to meet the rising domestic demand for this calendar year.
Iran spent more than $3 billion last year buying nearly 12 million mt of wheat from farmers last year.
Bumper crops allowed the government to declare itself in wheat production and to halt orders for large-scale crop shipments from countries like Russia.
MNA