Iran reports over 10% rise in domestic wheat purchases
Iran has purchased over 1.5 million metric tonnes of wheat from farmers since April, a 10.5% year-on-year rise, despite expectations of a smaller overall harvest. With production forecast to fall to 12 million tonnes due to poor weather and reduced planting, officials anticipate needing to import up to 6 million tonnes to meet demand.
MAJ’s wheat contractor Sohrab Sohrabi said on Saturday that some 1.514 million metric tons (mt) of wheat had been purchased from farmers since April, when the crop was ready for harvest in several provinces in southern Iran.
Sohrabi said the figure was an increase of 10.5% from the same period last year, adding that the wheat crop has been collected from 0.511 million hectares of land across Iran, including from 28,000 hectares of dryland farms.
He said that the value of the wheat crop purchased from Iranian farmers has topped 310 trillion rials ($387 million), adding that more than 1.1 million mt of this year’s wheat purchases have come from the province of Khuzestan, a major grain production center in the southwest of the country.
Iran buys wheat from farmers under a guaranteed purchase program, which has set a fixed price of 205,000 rials ($0.25) per kilogram this harvesting season.
The country reported a bumper wheat crop last year as total output surpassed 16 million mt, with the government paying the equivalent of more than $3 billion for some 12 million mt of purchases.
However, authorities expect the harvest to drop this year amid lower planting and poorer weather conditions.
Sohrabi said that the MAJ expects this year’s wheat production to fall to 12 million mt, adding that government purchases could amount to 9 million mt by the end of the harvesting season in September.
Experts say Iran would need to import up to 6 million mt of wheat in the calendar year to late March to respond to the rising demand for the grain.
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Source : Nour News
