Date: 04 Mar 2000
Time: 17:48:04
Remote Name: 24.30.137.96
03/04/2000 Dow Jones International News (Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
TEHRAN -(Dow Jones)- Iranian Agriculture Minister Issa Kalantari has announced that, in a break from past practice, the government is planning to purchase domestically-produced wheat from farmers at going world prices, reported the Farsi-language IRAN newspaper Saturday.
President Mohammad Khatami was personally involved in the plan to raise the purchase price of wheat, as well as facilitate the flow of credit into the agricultural sector to improve farmers' ability to buy modern machinery, he said.
The plan for the wheat price hike, would likely spread to other products purchased by the government and distributed nationwide at subsidized rates, Kalantari said.
Wheat is regarded as a strategic product and the plan is aimed to help raise its production as well as attract capital to the agricultural sector.
Iran is a major importer of food from world markets with wheat, cooking oil and sugar topping the list.
According to a report released by Iran Customs Administration the country imported $620 million of wheat, $532 million of cooking oil and $216 million of sugar during the 11 months of the current Iranian year which ended on Feb. 19.