Iran cancels wheat import duties

Iran’s Agriculture Ministry has lifted tariffs on imports of wheat and animal feed barley, a news agency says.

Duties on imports of wheat were cancelled on Sept. 6 and for barley on Aug. 2, the Reuters news agency said, claiming it had seen an official document.

There was no immediate comment on the report Wednesday by Iran’s Agriculture Ministry officials.

The government slapped the import duties on wheat and barely in July in order to discourage purchases from abroad. The duties are also aimed at preventing imported grain from being re-sold to the government at higher prices.

Last month, Deputy Agriculture Minister Ali Qanbari said Iran would not import wheat this year thanks to satisfactory state purchases of the crop from local farmers and decent harvest.

Qanbari said overall guaranteed purchases were expected to surpass eight million metric tons in addition to sufficiently good stocks for six months of supply which existed from last year.

On Tuesday, the spokesman for the guaranteed wheat purchases Heshmatollah Nazari said more than 8.3 million metric tons of the staple has been bought so far.

“The Ministry of Agriculture Jihad had predicted the production of about 11 million tons and around 8 million tons of guaranteed purchases of wheat this crop year which has been materialized,” he said.