Iran is able to meet its domestic need of rice in the current year due to excessive import of the product during the past two years, Jamil Alizadeh Shayegh, secretary of the national Rice Association, said on Friday. “According to ministry of agriculture jihad statistics, the domestic production of rice is 2 million tons a year, but the actual requirement based on per capita consumption is 40 kg. Therefore the total need is about 3 million tons,” he was quoted by ILNA as saying. “Given that we have 1 million tons of rice remaining from the previous year’s imports, and this year’s production having reached 2 million tons, there is enough rice for the current year (ending March 20), the official said.
