Iran imported $825 million worth of rice from India during the first seven months of 2022, registering a 28% rise compared with the similar period of last year.
Rice, which accounts for 66% of Iran’s purchases, was the main commodity exported by India to Iran during the period.
Iran’s main exports to India during the same period were different kinds of fruit worth $96 million, accounting for 26% of Iran’s total exports to India, IRNA reported.
Iran and India traded $1.6 billion worth of goods from January to July, registering a 49% rise compared with the corresponding period of 2021 when the figure stood at $1.07 billion.
Iran exported more than $361 million worth of goods to India during the period, registering a 35% increase.
Imports from India stood at $1.24 billion, showing a YOY rise of 54%.
Rice consumption in Iran currently stands at around 3 million tons per year, 70% of which are supplied through domestic production, according to a deputy agriculture minister.
“The ministry plans to increase local production by contract-based cultivation and by distributing enough high-quality inputs, including fertilizers and pesticides, and providing high-yield seeds to farmers,” Alireza Mohajer was also quoted as saying by IRIB News.
A total of 2.25 million tons of rice were produced in Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2021-22), according to the deputy head of Iran Rice Union.
“According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, more than 1.2 million tons of rice were imported last year,” Ahmad Eshraqi was also quoted as saying by the Young Journalists Club.
The northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan are Iran’s rice production hubs.
Rice Production
Director General of Grains and Essential Goods Bureau with the Agriculture Ministry Faramak Aziz-Karimi said there are 654,000 hectares of paddy fields scattered across the country, 440,000 hectares of which are located in the three northern provinces.
Iran’s rice imports are expected to double to 1.8 million tons in 2022, from 0.9 million tons in 2021, says the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
In its biannual report on global food markets, FAO says Iran imported an average of 1.3 million tons of rice during 2018-20.
Production in 2022 is forecast to slightly decrease to 1.9 million tons from 2 million tons in 2021.
The 2018-20 average production has been put at 2.5 million tons.
Consumption is forecast to slightly increase from 3.6 million tons in 2021 to 3.7 million tons in 2022.
Average utilization during the crop years 2018-19 to 2020-21 stood at 3.6 million tons.
2022-23, 2021-22 and 2018-19 to 2020-21 average closing stocks have been put at 0.6, 0.5 and 0.7 million tons respectively.
According to FAO, per capita rice consumption in Iran stood at 38.5 kilograms per year in 2021-22, which is forecast to slightly rise to 38.6 kilograms.
The 2018-19 to 2020-21 average per capita has been put at 38.2 kilograms.
The report noted that limited availabilities of water for irrigation cloud rice production outlook for Iran.
“International trade in rice is predicted to register its third successive annual increase in 2022 [January–December], with volumes exchanged across the world forecast to reach 53.1 million tons, up 3% from the 2021 all-time high. With the exception of the Asian Far East, most regions are anticipated to step up imports over the course of the year, often aided by state efforts to contain inflationary pressure. Such steps have taken the form of import duty remissions in various African and Latin American countries, or of an acceleration of government-contracted imports, as has been most notably the case of Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” it said.
