Iran becomes top wheat importer on food security issues

Iran has become the world's largest wheat importer as its plans of achieving self-sufficiency suffer a blow due to drought.

Drought has forced Iran to have a drastic change of identity - from a minor player in the grains market to a top buyer. For the first time in 26 years, Iran had to buy wheat from the US.

The surge in wheat imports comes amid rising concern of food security among Middle East and North African countries, with Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states seeking overseas farmland to grow crops.

The USDA forecasts Iran will buy 8.5 million tonnes of wheat in the 2008-09 crop year ending June, accounting for about 6.5 percent of the global wheat trade.

Grain traders agree with the forecast as they noted Iran's aggressive buying - total cost of imports is estimated at US$2 billion to US$2.5 billion, with the one million tonnes bought from the US since last July valued at US$356 million.

In comparison, Iran imported only 200,000 tonnes of wheat in 2007-08, said the USDA.

Mohammad-Reza Eskan-d-ari, minister of agriculture, has vowed to regain wheat self-sufficiency by producing 15 million tonnes this season, but traders believed that a bad crop is at hand as Iran buys large amount of wheat for delivery later this year.

Issa Kalantari, head of the country's national farmers' union and a former agriculture minister, said Iran's agricultural sector is suffering from a severe shortage of investment.