Some 315,200 tons of sugar worth $136.2 million were imported by the state-owned Government Trading Corporation of Iran over the 11 months to February 18, registering a 93.5% and 190.4% growth in weight and value respectively compared with the corresponding period of the year before.
The government has recently slashed import tariffs on sugar from 26% to 20% to adjust prices in the runup to the holy month of Ramadan (May 28-June 25, 2017), IRNA reported.
“The government has issued permits for the import of 700,000 tons of sugar in the current Iranian year (March 2017-18),” secretary of Iranian Sugar Factories Syndicate, Bahman Danaei, was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency last week.
Deputy head of GTC, Hassan Abbasi, had earlier said the government has allowed the import of 550,000 tons of sugar.
GTC is a government-owned company specializing in purchase, import and distribution of essential foodstuff. It is the lever for enforcing market controls.
The company is also in charge of maintaining a supply of wheat, rice, cooking oil and meat as the country’s strategic reserve of essential goods.
A total of 1.65 million tons of sugar were produced in the last Iranian year that ended on March 20, 2017, registering a record high, meeting more than 74% of the domestic demand for the product, Minister of Agriculture Mahmoud Hojjati said.
Domestic demand for sugar stands at 2.2 million tons annually.
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