Iran to continue allocating subsidized currency to rice imports
The Iranian government has announced it will continue to allocate subsidized currency to rice imports despite a request from the country’s Plan and Budget Organization (PBO) to stop the allocation to provide more support to domestic rice growers.
Government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said on Saturday that rice importers will continue to access the US dollar at a subsidized price of 285,000 per Iranian rial after the Cabinet’s Economic Committee rejected a PBO request for removing rice from the list of basic goods whose imports are subsidized.
“This proposal failed to win enough votes in the related commission in the Cabinet ... a decision on this issue was deemed not necessary considering the current circumstances,” said Bahadori.
The PBO has been pressing for lower imports of rice to help increase prices of domestic crop.
Iran imports sizable amounts of rice from India and Pakistan and several other countries to prevent any shortages in the domestic market.
Rice imports into Iran reached some 1.054 million metric tons (mt) in the calendar year to March with India responsible for nearly 70% of the supply, followed by Pakistan at 29% and countries like Taiwan, Thailand and Iraq providing the rest, according to figures by the Iranian customs office.
The total demand for rice in Iran is nearly 3.5 million mt with a bulk of the supply coming from paddy fields in northern provinces located along the Caspian Sea coast.
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