Iran expects bumper rice harvest this year

Iran’s ministry of agriculture (MAJ) said on Saturday that rice harvest in the country would amount to 2.7 million metric tons (mt) in the harvest period that ends in the coming weeks.

MAJ’s contractor for wheat and rice Sohrab Sohrabi said the output would be an increase of nearly 26% compared to the 2021 harvest period.

Sohrabi said that rice has been cultivated in some 750,000 hectares of lands in Iran with some 70% of production concentrated in three northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan.

He said main reasons behind the bumper rice crop in Iran this year is the support provided by the government, including the supply of genetically-modified seeds to farmers and the expansion of mechanization in the sector as well as better use of fertilizers by farmers.

Increased domestic production of rice can allow Iran to cut its sizable imports from countries like India and Pakistan.

The government has managed to reduce rice imports in recent years thanks to better crop yields.

Rice imports into Iran reached some 1.054 million metric tons (mt) worth more than $1 billion in the calendar year to March with India responsible for nearly 70% of the supply, followed by Pakistan at 29% and countries like Taiwan, Thailand and Iraq providing the rest, according to figures by the Iranian customs office.

That comes as Iran had imported nearly $1.2 billion worth of rice in only four months to July 2022.

The total annual demand for rice in Iran is nearly 3.5 million mt with a bulk of the supply coming from paddy fields in provinces located along the Caspian Sea coast.