TEHRAN – Iran’s wheat production is expected to reach 15 million tons in the current crop year (September 2023-2024), an official with the Agriculture Ministry said.

According to Alireza Mohajer, the deputy Agriculture Minister for cultivation affairs, the government has purchased 9.5 million tons of wheat from farmers since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 20) up to July 24, 15 percent more than the figure for the previous year’s same period.

Putting the country’s annual need for wheat at 11.5 million tons, the official said considering the current trend of production, the country will be self-sufficient in the wheat production.

Considered a staple in Iran, wheat is purchased every crop year by the government to build up its reserves and supply the market over time.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in a recent report said Iran produced more than 21 million tons of grain in the 2023 Crop Year to hold the fourth largest grain reserves in Asia.

In the report dubbed “Outlook of Food Products and Situation”, FAO put the total volume of grain produced in Iran in 2023 at 21.1 million tons, showing a more than two percent hike compared to a year earlier.

According to this report, Iran produced over 13 million tons of wheat in 2022 and 13.5 million tons in 2023.

FAO put Iran's total cereal stocks at 12.1 million tons in the previous year, noting that the stocks increased by 100,000 tons compared to the previous year.

Back in May 2023, FAO released a report in which Iran was ranked 43rd in the world in terms of food imports despite being the 17th most populous country in the world.

The UN entity’s statistics show that industrialized countries were the largest importers of food products in the world.

According to the organization, Iran currently stands among the world’s top producers of agricultural products.

China is ranked first in the world in terms of grain reserves with 399 million tons of grains, followed by India with 64 million tons of grain reserves and Turkey with 12.7 million tons respectively.

EF/MA