TEHRAN: Around 760,000 tons of rice were imported into Iran during the last fiscal year that ended on March 20, 2017, a deputy minister of agriculture said. “This is a remarkable achievement, as four years ago when President Hassan Rouhani took office, rice imports stood at 2 million tons [per year],” Yazdan Seif was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
Iranians consume about 3.2 million tons of rice every year. The government periodically places a ban on imports during the harvest season to support local farmers.
