TEHRAN (Iran News) –Secretary of Iran’s Rice Suppliers Commission, Masih Keshavarz, says the agriculture ministry has banned imports of rice since November and it has imported very few amount of rice and it caused chaos in the rice market.
Speaking to ILNA, Keshavarz pointed to the latest development in the rice market and said that the general view of the rice market is repeated every year and some part of people’s demand of rice is provided by the domestic product and the other part is provided through imports and choosing the type of the rice depends on the purchasing power of people.
He noted that the fall in the purchasing power of the people has forced them to turn to foreign rice, adding that the private sector has imported about 1.15m tons of rice in 10 months and this amount of rice has been consumed and now the country needs to supply rice for the Nowruz (New Year) holidays and holy month of Ramadhan, and the country needs at least 300,000 tons more of rice to meet the demands.
Keshavarz noted that the domestic rice production is estimated at around 2.4m tons this year and the price of the domestic rice is facing upward trend and it has made people not to show any willing to buy Iranian rice and they are unable to use this product on their tables.
Reacting to the reports that the government has lifted ban on imports of rice, he said that unfortunately this is not true and the ministry has not lifted the ban on imports of the rice.
Meanwhile Head of Association of Rice Sellers if Babol said that because of fall in the purchasing power, even people in north of the country have turned to the foreign rice and they now prefer using good quality Indian and Pakistan rice to Iranian one.
