Official denies Iran ban on rice import lifted

An Agriculture Ministry official has denied that Iran had removed a ban on rice imports aimed at protecting domestic farmers during their harvest. 

“Although there is need for imports to adjust domestic market, no authorization has been issued yet for rice imports,” director general of the grains and basic crops of the ministry Kaveh Khaksar said on Wednesday.

The rebuttal came after another official was quoted as saying that the import ban had been lifted as of November, prompting a surge among Indian rice shippers.

Khaksar said local farmers had produced 1.8 million metric tons of rice in the current crop year although harvest was not complete yet.

Iran needs about 3 million metric tons of rice a year, with the deficit bought from abroad.

Khaksar said 400,000 metric tons had been already imported in the first six months of the current Iranian year which ends on March 20, 2016.

“The rice prices are going up and given the ban of over a year, it seems there is need for new imports,” he said.

On Tuesday, Deputy Agriculture Minister Ali Qanbari was quoted as saying the ban on rice imports was lifted on Oct. 23 and Iran’s Government Trading Corporation (GTC) had launched an international tender to purchase rice.

Quoted by the Reuters news agency, Qanbari also said lifting sanctions would help bring the cost of imported wheat down by as much as 30%.

The removal of sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) would sharply slash the costs of transportation, he was quoted as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.

"We are hoping that by the lifting of sanctions, especially on IRISL, the costs would fall by 20 to 30 percent," said Qanbari, who is also the chairman and CEO of GTC.

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