Report: Iran cancels wheat import duties
Iran’s Agriculture Ministry has lifted tariffs on imports of wheat and animal feed barley, a news agency says.
Duties on imports of wheat were cancelled on Sept. 6 and for barley on Aug. 2, the Reuters news agency said, claiming it had seen an official document.
There was no immediate comment on the report Wednesday by Iran's Agriculture Ministry officials.
The government slapped the import duties on wheat and barely in July in order to discourage purchases from abroad. The duties are also aimed at preventing imported grain from being re-sold to the government at higher prices.
Last month, Deputy Agriculture Minister Ali Qanbari said Iran would not import wheat this year thanks to satisfactory state purchases of the crop from local farmers and decent harvest.
Qanbari said overall guaranteed purchases were expected to surpass eight million metric tons in addition to sufficiently good stocks for six months of supply which existed from last year.
On Tuesday, the spokesman for the guaranteed wheat purchases Heshmatollah Nazari said more than 8.3 million metric tons of the staple has been bought so far.
“The Ministry of Agriculture Jihad had predicted the production of about 11 million tons and around 8 million tons of guaranteed purchases of wheat this crop year which has been materialized,” he said.
Iran has turned to a major wheat importer over the past decade as the country has seen its population grow to over 80 million and a lingering drought sharply reduce harvest.
The government abandoned a self-sufficiency drive for wheat production to avoid putting more strains on the country’s water reserves.
Last month, Agriculture Ministry’s Mohammad Reza Shafeinia said Iran had launched agricultural cultivation in Kazakhstan, marking its first farmland investment overseas.
Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati has said the government envisioned investment on 500,000 hectares of farmland in a number of countries to secure food supplies.
Food prices are a key driver of Iran’s double-digit inflation which shot over 40% under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but has fallen to hover around 15% since his departure.
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