TEHRAN - Wheat production in Iran has increased by six percent in 2023, putting the Islamic Republic in 14th place among the world’s top producers of the strategic grain, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s World Agricultural Production report.

Based on the said report, Iranian farmers managed to produce 14 million tons of wheat in the 2023 crop year, 800,000 tons more than the figure for the previous year in which the total production stood at 13.2 million tons.

According to USDA, Iran was the world’s 13th largest wheat producer in 2022.

The department has also predicted that Iran will produce 14 million tons of wheat in 2024, which will not change compared to 2023.

The increase in Iran's wheat production during 2023 comes as the world's total wheat production this year has decreased by about seven million tons to reach 782 million tons.

According to this report, Iran, which is the 18th most populous country in the world, has produced more wheat than many countries including Brazil and Egypt.

As reported, China was the largest producer of wheat in the world in 2023 and has produced more than 137 million tons of wheat this year, although this country’s production has also decreased by about 700,000 tons compared to the previous year.

The European Union with the production of 134 million tons and India with 110 million tons of wheat production are ranked second and third, respectively.

According to the U.S. Department for Agriculture, Iran imported 4.5 million tons of wheat in the last crop year, and this figure is expected to decrease to four million tons this year.

The department estimated Iran's wheat reserves at the end of 2022 at 4.4 million tons and predicted that Iran would have the same amount of wheat reserves at the end of 2023.

Barley production in Iran is also expected to increase by seven percent in the current crop year to reach 3.2 million tons. Iran produced three million tons of barley last year.

Based on the report, Iran imported 2.2 million tons of barley last year, and it is predicted that 2.3 million tons of barley will also be imported into Iran this year.

EF/MA