The Iranian government has announced it will continue to allocate subsidized currency to import rice into the country.
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 rials.
It came after the cabinet rejected a request by the Plan and Budget Organization for removing rice from the list of basic goods which receive subsidized currency.
“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 Jahromi.
The Plan and Budget Organization has been pressing to lower imports of rice to help support domestic production of the crop, he added.
Iran imports sizable amounts of rice from India and Pakistan and several other countries to prevent any shortages in the domestic market.
Masih Keshavarz, the secretary of Iran’s Rice Exporters, Suppliers, and Importers Association, said early January that as much as 3.6 million metric tons (mt) of rice is annually consumed in Iran.
He added that over 2 million mt of rice are produced by domestic farmers annually and between 1.2 and 1.5 million mt of the crop need to be imported into the country.