Iran said it does not need to import sugar before March 2005 so long as money is set aside to buy domestic production, which is more expensive than imports, Fars news agency reported on Friday. Minister of Commerce Mohammad Shariatmadari, in a letter to the country's first vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref, requested the resources for the ministry to buy domestic production.
"All needs can easily be met from domestic production," Shariatmadari said.
Iran's Government Trading Company (GTC) this month imported 40,000 tonnes of sugar and tendered for another 40,000, despite earlier comments that it did not need imports.
The Ministry of Agriculture said the country's consumption in the year to March 2005 would be 1.85 million tonnes.
Domestic output in the same period is put at 1.45 million tonnes.
Iran's Economy Council, the country's highest economic body which also regulates state imports of strategic agricultural commodities, had issued permits for the import of 414,000 tonnes of sugar by March 2005.
But the country has 400,000 tonnes of sugar in store from the previous year and another 250,000 tonnes in strategic reserves.
Producers have complained that the state has failed to finance domestic purchases.
Iran is seeking to increase its commodity production to become less dependent on imports as its current account surplus narrows sharply.