Tehran– Deputy Minister of Agricultural Jihad Abdolmahdi Bakhshandeh said on Sunday that over the past two years, Iran's annual imports of agricultural products have reduced by $5 million.

IFIF Public Relations- Bakhshandeh made the remarks in response to certain claims that the government has increased the imports of agricultural products.

Based on Customs Administration's statistics, Iran's imports of agricultural products over the current calendar year (1394) was nearly 13 million tons while Iran imported over 22 million tons of agricultural products in the years 1391 and 1392, the official said.

He said that the increase in imports of agricultural products in 1391 and 1392 pushed the country's trade balance to minus eight billion dollars.

He put Iran's current trade balance at plus three million dollars./s