Incentives for Sugarbeet Farmers

Iran’s Agriculture Ministry and the Iranian Sugar Factories Syndicate have agreed to pay incentives to sugarbeet farmers.

For the delivery of 1 ton of sugarbeet, 2 kilograms of sugar or sugar cube as well as 20 kilograms of beet pulp will be given to farmers in the current crop year (March 2015-17), Alireza Yazdani, the executive of the Sugarbeet and Sugar Project with the Ministry of Agriculture, said.

Yazdani noted that Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati has also discussed these incentives with the Planning and Budget Organization of Iran for the next crop year (March 2016-18), which will be announced upon their ratification.

In the last Iranian year (March 2016-17), 105,000 hectares of farms were under sugarbeet cultivation and 11,000 hectares were designated for autumn cultivation.

Some 1 million tons of sugar were produced in Iran last year, 860,000 tons of which were produced from sugarbeet. It is projected that this year’s output would reach 1.7 million tons.

The provinces of West Azarbaijan, Khorasan Razavi, Fars and Kermanshah were major sugarbeet producers for spring cultivation while the provinces of Khuzestan, Khorasan Razavi and Golestan were the biggest ones for autumn cultivation.

Each Iranian consumes 26-30 kg of sugar on average annually.