Iran should not have imported 10 million tons of wheat: Iranian official

TEHRAN,Oct.13(MNA) - The chairman of the agriculture committee of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines has criticized importing 10 million tons of wheat during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 20. Mohammad-Hossein Karimi told the Mehr News Agency that such a high volume of wheat imports is alarming. This is while it had been projected that the annual domestic wheat production would hit 14 million tons and that the country would export its surplus wheat, he noted. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Iran’s rice output will remain unchanged at 2.4 million tons, but wheat output will decline by 4 percent to reach 13.5 million tons. Total Iran's cereal imports, however, are forecast to remain high at 7.3 million tons, consisting of maize, wheat and rice. In August, Press TV quoted the advisor to the minister of Agricultural Jihad as saying that Iran is the 12th leading producer of wheat in the world. Javad Hosseini said that the wheat yield will be sufficient for the domestic use.