Apr 21, 2024 (MENAFN via COMTEX) --
(MENAFN) An official from Iran's Agriculture Ministry has projected that the country's wheat production will reach 13.5 million tons during the current crop year spanning September 2023 to 2024. Sohrab Sohrabi, the manager of the Agriculture Ministry's Wheat Project, indicated that the government procured 10.4 million tons of wheat from farmers in the previous year, with expectations for this figure to rise to 10.5 million tons in the current year.
Highlighting wheat's significance as a staple in Iran, Sohrabi noted that the government purchases wheat annually to bolster reserves and ensure a steady supply to the market. With the country's annual wheat requirement estimated at 12 million tons, he expressed confidence that Iran will achieve self-sufficiency in wheat production in the coming years, given the current production trajectory.
Iran's robust grain production was underscored in a recent report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which positioned Iran as the fourth-largest holder of grain reserves in Asia. The FAO report, titled "Outlook of Food Products and Situation," revealed that Iran's grain production in the 2023 Crop Year surpassed 21 million tons, marking a more than two percent increase compared to the previous year.
According to FAO data, Iran produced over 13 million tons of wheat in 2022 and 13.5 million tons in 2023, contributing significantly to the country's cereal stocks, which reached 12.1 million tons in the previous year. Despite these robust domestic production figures, Iran was ranked 43rd globally in terms of food imports in a FAO report released in May 2023, highlighting a discrepancy between production capacity and import reliance despite being the 17th most populous country in the world.
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COMTEX_451192763/2604/2024-04-21T17:03:34
