Last year, according to statistics from the Central Bank, Customs Organization, and Ministry of Agriculture-Jihad, about 22.5 million tons of basic goods worth 28,500 Tomans were imported into the country, including 10.5 million tons of corn, 4 million tons of soybean meal, 2.8 million tons of barley, and 326,000 tons of meat.
Therefore, if the government wants to implement last year’s import plan, excluding meat, it will have to spend about $11.3 billion on importing goods, while the Ministry of Agriculture-Jihad’s plans for this year have been focused on increasing production. For example, last year we had a total of 145 million tons of hatching, but this year’s target is 160 million tons of chickens, or last year’s eggs were 11 kilos, but this year they are 12 to 15 kilos. In the field of meat, too, due to the restrictions in the country, the figure is increasing either through domestic production or from imports.
On the other hand, the current crop year was faced with a severe drought; wheat production decreased from 12 million tons last year to 3 to 4 million tons this year. Therefore, wheat imports have increased by 28,500 Tomans. In terms of barley, domestic production was adequate last year and only 2.8 million tons were imported, but this year it is expected that 3.5 to 4 million tons of barley will be imported; in other words, an increase of about 1 million tons in imports.
