Iran’s flour-milling industry needs to import 1 million tons of high-quality wheat by April to supply domestic bread and confectionery producers, the Federation of Iranian Food-Industry Associations said. “Shipments are needed for blending with Iran’s own wheat, which has a lower gluten content,” Kaveh Zargaran, secretary-general of the Tehran-based group, said in an interview in Moscow, Bloomberg reported. Gluten is the component of wheat that gives dough its strength. Iran ordered a halt to registration of wheat import contracts for the Iranian year that started on March 20, 2016. on the grounds that domestic stockpiles and output were sufficient. That reduced demand on the global market amid a supply glut. Zargaran said companies in Russia, Germany and Lithuania, which registered their deals before the halt, delivered about 1 million tons during the year before their registrations expired. “The government may consider a resumption of imports after the nation completes harvesting in October,” he said. Iran is set to produce 15.5 million tons of wheat this year–the biggest crop in nine years.
