The government will increase the guaranteed purchase prices of 24 agricultural products from local farmers by up to 15%, says the managing director of the Central Organization of Rural Cooperatives of Iran. “This comes despite the fact that the global prices of agricultural products have fallen sharply in the past couple of years,” Hossein Safaei also told ISNA. According to Managing Director of Government Trading Corporation of Iran Ali Qanbari, the government has purchased as much as 470,000 tons of wheat worth 5,500 billion rials (around $158.63 million) from the farmers of seven southern provinces since the start of the harvest season (mid-March) up until April 25. Qanbari also said GTC’s purchase offices receive up to 30,000 tons of wheat daily. “Most purchases were made in Khuzestan Province. Wheat growers there sold 300,000 tons of the crop to the government in the said period. The remaining 170,000 tons were bought in Fars, Kerman, Bushehr, Ilam, Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces,” IRNA quoted Qanbari as saying.
