TEHRAN - The managing director of Government Trading Corporation of Iran (GTC) announced on Sunday that the country’s wheat production is expected to exceed 11 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 19, 2020) and there would be no need for importing the grain.

“To date, some 1.234 million tons of wheat has been purchased, which is 23 percent more than that of last year,” IRIB quoted Yazdan Seif as saying on Saturday.

Iran has been self-reliance in wheat production over the past three years and the Ministry of Agriculture announced last year that there was no need for importing wheat.

According to Deputy Agriculture Minister Abbas Keshavarz, the country's self-sufficiency rate in wheat production has increased from 65 percent in the Iranian calendar year of 1392 (March 2013-March 2014) to 105 percent in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20).

Of the 8.5 million hectares of land under cultivation in Iran, some 60 percent is under wheat farming which shows the significance of this grain in the country.
EF/MA