Iran will not import any wheat until March 2025 as it will rely on domestic production, the Iranian Student News Agency reported a deputy at the Agriculture Ministry saying on Thursday.

“Between March 2023 and March 2024, domestic production of wheat has reached 10.5 million tons and we only needed to import 1 million tons of wheat,” Alireza Mohajer said, adding that the country expects to be self-sufficient in the production of wheat for this year.

Iran’s domestic wheat output can vary widely depending on rainfall.

In some years Iran has been self-sufficient while droughts at other times have forced the country to import record high levels. Domestic output levels fell as low as 4.5 million tons and imports rose as high as 7 million tons between March 2021 and March 2022, Mohajer said.

Between March 2022 and March 2023, domestic wheat output was 7.5 million tons while import were 3 million tons, he said.

(Reuters)