Iran will export 2 million tonnes of wheat to three Arab countries in May after a halt lasting three years, the official IRNA news agency quoted a senior official as saying on Sunday.
"The government has issued permission to export 2 million tonnes of wheat in (the Iranian month of) Ordibehesht (May) to Oman, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates," Deputy Commerce Minister Hamid Alikhani told IRNA.
In 2004, Iran celebrated self-sufficiency in wheat production but cold winter weather in 2007-08 followed by drought hit agricultural output and forced it to resume importing the grain. An Iranian newspaper said in December the Islamic Republic imported 4 million tonnes of wheat in the past eight months, paying the equivalent of around $1 billion.
Another media report earlier last year said Iran imported 5.9 million tonnes of wheat in the 2008-09 year, of which about 15 percent came from the United States. Iran had stopped buying US wheat after its 1979 revolution, which ousted the pro-US government.
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