Iran denies direct purchase of wheat from U.S.
Washington, 24 August (IranVNC)—Iran’s Commerce Minister yesterday denied reports that his country had imported a large quantity of US wheat this summer, saying Iran has other countries it imports wheat from.
By: IranVNC
Published: Sunday, August 24, 2008
11:00GMT—7:00AM/EST
IRAN – WHEAT – IMPORTS – US
Washington, 24 August (IranVNC)—Iran’s Commerce Minister yesterday denied reports that his country had imported a large quantity of US wheat this summer, saying Iran has other countries it imports wheat from.
“We [Iran] purchase wheat from European countries and countries like Canada and until now we have not directly purchased wheat from America”, Commerce Minister Massoud Mir-Kazemi told the semi-official Mehr News Agency.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran has purchased more than one million tons of hard red winter wheat valued at 350 million dollars from the U.S. since 1 June. The last time Iran imported US wheat was 27 years ago, when it bought 728,000 tons.
According to the report, Iran is facing drought conditions and will only produce 10 million tons of wheat this year, five million tons less than last year.
The report added that the wheat coming from the Black Sea region and even some European countries was lower quality, forcing Iran to turn to the U.S. for high quality grain.
But Mir-Kazemi rejected this claim, telling Mehr News: “the quality of the purchased wheat [from non-US sources] is even more desirable than our [Iran’s] average wheat.”
While US laws prohibit the sale of technology, which could have military usage, to Iran, the export of agricultural goods, medicines and several other categories of goods are permitted.
Washington is locked in a dispute with Tehran over its controversial nuclear program and has tightened economic sanctions against Iran in recent months in an effort to persuade that country to halt its sensitive nuclear work.
Sources: Mehr News Agency, Wall Street Journal
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