Financial Tribune- More than 1.2 million tons of wheat have been traded at Iran Mercantile Exchange in the current fiscal year (started March 21), indicating a 186% rise compared with last year’s total trade of the commodity, IME Chief Executive Hamed Soltani-Nejad said.

“Wheat exports via IME have also more than doubled to 65,750 tons this year,” the official added. A record high of 14 million tons of wheat were domestically produced in the last Iranian year (March 2016-17), more than 11.76 million tons of which worth over $4 billion were purchased by the government from local farmers at guaranteed prices.

This helped Iran achieve self-sufficiency in wheat production. This year’s purchases have amounted to around 9 million tons so far. With a shipment of 29,630 tons from Imam Khomeini Port in the city of Mahshahr in the southern Khuzestan Province to Oman, Iran exported its first wheat consignment in June. Armenia, Afghanistan, Germany, the United States, Turkey, South Korea, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait and the Netherlands were the main export destinations of Iranian wheat. IME is a commodities exchange located in Tehran. Founded in 2006, IME trades in agricultural, industrial and petrochemical products in the spot and futures markets. The mercantile exchange has recently added various commodities to its arsenal, such as gold, pistachio, saffron and automobiles.