Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati said wheat production will outstrip demand by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2017), which will make Iran self-sufficient and help build up its strategic reserves.
“Up until now, the government has purchased 8.6 million tons of wheat from local farmers,” Hojjati was quoted as saying by IRNA on Sunday.
The government buys wheat from local farmers at guaranteed prices to build up its strategic reserves and control prices in the domestic market.
It has been estimated that wheat production from 6 million hectares of irrigated and rainfed fields will rise from last year’s 11.5 million tons to more than 13 million tons this year.
Iran was the 11th biggest producer of wheat worldwide in 2015 for the third consecutive year, according to a recent report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
In its latest report on Iran’s agricultural sector, Business Monitor International estimates that Iran’s wheat production will reach 16 million by 2019/20 and that wheat yields will improve, because of the use of modern technology, greater access to relevant inputs and a larger area of the country benefiting from new irrigation facilities.
