Iran imported 47% less sugar during the first 11 months of the last Iranian calendar year to late March compared to the same period of a year earlier.
Iran’s state news agency cited official statistics on Saturday which said that the country imported some 666,000 tons of sugar products worth $434 million in the period under review, marking a 47% year-on-year drop in terms of weight and a 36% fall in terms of value.
The decrease in sugar imports was due to the government’s support for domestic production and an increase in sugar beets and sugarcane cultivation.
Iran needs some 2.2 million tons of sugar every year, a significant amount of which is supplied by domestic producers and the rest must be imported.