DUBAI: Iran said it would raise the price it pays to its local farmers for wheat and barley for the next fiscal year by almost 10 percent, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported.
“Durum wheat will be purchased at a guaranteed price of 12,705 Iranian rials per kilo, and milling wheat at 13,068 rials per kilo,” both up 10 percent compared to this year, ISNA quoted Deputy Agriculture Minister Abdolmehdi Bakhshandeh as saying.
The new Iranian fiscal year starts on March 20, 2016.
Barley will be bought from farmers at 10,028 rials per kilogram and high-quality rice at 36,800 rials a kilogram, up 9 and 15 percent, respectively, compared to this year.
The rial is trading at an official rate of 29,960 to the U.S. dollar.
Iran’s state grain-buying agency, the Government Trading Corporation (GTC), said on Tuesday it had bought more than 8 million tonnes of wheat from its farmers this year, an increase of 1.3 million tonnes over the previous year.
Despite its high local purchases and moves towards self-sufficiency, GTC said it would keep importing wheat to maintain its strategic reserves.
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