The government is planning to import 2 million metric tons of wheat during the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21) in a bid to avert possible shortage of wheat in the domestic market, senior official at the agriculture ministry Ali Ghanbari Adivi said on Saturday. “The imported wheat will be of high quality and conforms to due standards,” he was quoted by IRNA as saying, noting that this year 8 million tons of wheat is expected to be produced by Iranian farmers. He further said that the government has already started buying the domestically-grown wheat from the Iranian farmers, adding 7.5 million tons of wheat will be purchased from domestic farmers by the end of year.
