About 450,000 tons of oilseeds, including colza, soybean, sunflower, sesame and safflower, will be produced from 300,000 hectares of fields under cultivation by the end of the current crop year, an official with the Agriculture Ministry said.
“We aim to meet 12% of the domestic demand for vegetable oil, which amount to 1.4 million tons annually, inside the country this year,” Alireza Mohajer was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
The official said he expects some 300,000 tons of colza oilseeds to be produced this year, from which 100,000 tons of raw vegetable oil will be extracted.
The provinces of Golestan in the north, Ardebil in the northwest and Khuzestan in southern Iran are the top producers of colza oilseeds in Iran. According to Agriculture Ministry, 90% of the domestic demand for vegetable oil are presently met through exports. The government is planning to reduce this volume to 25% within the next 10 years.
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