Iran to export first wheat cargo to Indonesia: Report

Iran plans its first ever wheat shipment to Indonesia in a turnaround after years of being a major importer of the strategic staple crop.

Reports on Saturday quoted Iran’s commercial attache to Indonesia Anvar Kamari as saying that a cargo of Iranian wheat will head to Indonesia which supplanted Egypt as the world’s largest wheat importer this year.

No figures were provided as to the size of the cargo.

The Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) quoted Kamari as saying that Indonesia can become a main destination for Iranian exports, given that the Islamic Republic plans to increase its wheat output.

Iran’s non-oil exports to Indonesia rose to $465 million in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year which ends on March 20, TPOI figures showed.

Indonesia is projected to import 12.5 million tonnes of wheat, a rise of 1 million from the year before. Australia, Canada, Ukraine and the US are main suppliers of wheat to Indonesia.

Total world consumption is projected 3.1 million tonnes higher, primarily on greater usage from Indonesia and China.

Last October, Iran exported 31,000 tonnes of quality durum wheat to Italy for the first time.

Managing Director of the Government Trading Corporation of Iran (GTC) Yazdan Seif said then that exports of one million tonnes of surplus wheat to the countries of the region and Europe were planned.

According to Iran’s agriculture ministry figures, the country exported 276,410 tonnes of wheat worth $70.78 million in the nine months of the current Persian year, up 1.3% from the year before.

The government bought 8.8 million tonnes of wheat from local farmers chiefly in the southern provinces of Khuzestan and Shiraz and the northern Golestan province in the current harvest year, Seif has said.

For years, Iran has been bartering locally-produced durum wheat with milling wheat. Last year, the country exported 300,000 tonnes of durum wheat.

Durum or macaroni wheat, used in pasta-making, is the hardest of all wheats, which is widely cultivated across the world.

Wheat is one of the items in Iran’s production of basic commodities under the “economy of resistance” which promotes growth and dynamism under sanctions.