Iran Produces 570,000 Tons Of Oil-seeds Annually

Tehran, Feb 3, IRNA – An official with Agriculture Ministry said that currently Iran produces 570,000 tons of various types of oil-seeds annually which meet only 13.5 percent of the country’s needs, with the rest being imported. Director General of the ministry’s Cotton, Oil-seeds and Industrial Plants Department, Mohammad Reza Dargahi told a news conference Sunday that oil seeds production stood at 125,000 tons in the post-Revolution era. They were solely limited to soybeans, sunflowers and cotton. Areas under oil-seeds cultivation in 1979 were 94,000 hectares, he said, noting that the figure currently hits 300,000 hectares with the output of 570,000 tons. Currently, sesame, cotton and safflower oil-seeds are cultivated in 17 provinces while colza is cultivated in all the 31 provinces, Dargahi said./end