Financial Tribune

Russia was the biggest exporter with $155.48 million. Other major exporters of the grain to Iran during the period were the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Turkey, Switzerland, the UK, Scotland and the UAE, Mizan Online reported.  

Iran was the biggest importer of barley from Kazakhstan in September-March 2018/19, accounting for 1.4 million tons or 93% of its total exports of 1.5 million tons, UkrAgroConsult reported.

The United States Department of Agriculture says Iran is estimated to have produced 2.8 million tons of barley in 2018-19, indicating a 9.67% decrease compared with the year before. 

The USDA put Iran’s barley imports at 3 million tons in 2018-19, registering an 11.11 % rise year-on-year. It forecast the figure to remain the same for 2019-20.

Iran’s total barley consumption was put at 6 million tons in 2017-18, which is estimated to increase to 6.1 million in 2018-19 and further rise by 3.27% to reach 6.3 million in 2019-20.   

Director General of the Agriculture Ministry's Grains and Essential Goods Department Faramak Aziz Karimi said more than 3.3 million tons of barley are estimated to be produced in Iran in the current year (March 2019-20) to register a 10% increase compared with the previous year.

“Every year, barley is cultivated on over 600,000 to 700,000 hectares of rain-fed and 900,000 to 1 million hectares of irrigated land across the country. We will owe this year’s ample yield to increased levels of precipitation in most of our provinces,” the official was quoted as saying by IRNA.