Iran’s imports of cooking oil and oil seeds reached some $4.329 billion in the calendar year to late March, according to a report which shows that the country has a long way to go to become self-sufficient in production of those commodities.
The Monday report by the Tasnim news agency showed that Iran had relied on imports from Brazil, Russia and Indonesia for 90% of its demand for cooking oil and oil seeds in the past decades.
The report said that total lands dedicated to oilseed farming in Iran had increased by nearly 50% to 155,000 hectares in the current calendar year starting in late March.
The report said that rapeseed production in the country would hit a target of 275,000 metric tons (mt) this calendar year, up from 160,000 mt reported last year.
However, it said that the amount of rapeseed produced in Iran in the year to late March was enough to meet only 10% of the demand in the domestic cooking oil industry.
That comes as the cooking oil consumption per capita in Iran is 23 kilograms, nearly double the international levels.
To encourage more cultivation of crops like rapeseed and soybean, the Iranian government has been allocating heavy subsidies to domestic purchases of oilseeds.
Domestic cooking oil producers are also obliged to purchase crops from domestic farmers in order to be able to use subsidized currency for imports of cooking oil and oilseeds.
Experts say a major increase in domestic oilseed production in Iran in the years to come would allow the country to meet some 50% of its need for the crop.