Some 6.3 million hectares in Iran are under wheat cultivation.

TEHRAN, Oct. 7--United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FAO has acknowledged in its latest report that for the first time in recent memory, Iran has approached self-sufficiency in wheat, the staple food of the country.
According to Fars news agency, the report further read, “A record production in 2004, following an earlier bumper crop in 2003 has raised hopes that the long-awaited self-sufficiency has become a norm rather than an exception.
“However, sustaining production at levels sufficient to meet growing domestic consumption needs will be a difficult and challenging task.“
It further said that ’until recently, Iran relied on large wheat imports to meet its growing domestic demand. This made Iran rank among the world’s leading wheat importers with an annual intake ranging from 2.5 to 7.5 million tons over the past two decades’.
It said domestic production is projected to approach 15 million tons by 2010.
The Iranian government expects wheat production to reach 12.1 million tons in the current crop year. Some 11.2 million tons of wheat were purchased from farmers last year.
Iran produces two percent of the world’s total wheat.
Some 6.3 million hectares in Iran are under wheat cultivation while the total area under wheat cultivation worldwide is 235 million hectares.
Last November, the government announced the country had attained self-sufficiency in wheat after 45 years. Wheat self-sufficiency drive was launched in 2001.
Imports stood at 10 million tons in 1998.

TEHRAN, Oct. 7--A lawmaker said here on Friday that inflation rate will not increase from last year’s 15.6 percent in the year to March 2006.
Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moqaddam, a member of Majlis Economic Commission, told ISNA that Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has announced that inflation rate has come down from 15.6 to 13.5 percent, adding that the new government is likely to help bring the rate further down by next March.
He blamed the rise in liquidity for the growth in inflation rate, stressing that the Ahmadinejad administration is required to control liquidity to tame inflation.
“Given that the government has introduced its economic team as a disciplined one, it has to prevent liquidity from going further up,“ he said, adding that the government needs to cut liquidity from 32 to 24 percent.
Some experts say that in addition to high liquidity, the government’s huge debts to the banking system are responsible for the worsening inflation.
CBI announced earlier that the government’s liabilities to the banking system have increased from 133 trillion rials to 137 trillion rials.
State organizations’ debts to the CBI also stood at 22.6 trillion rials by July.
The CBI report said that the government’s debts constitute a major portion of the bank’s holdings.
Mohammad Tabibian, who heads the CBI Monetary and Banking Research Center, contends that the central bank must be able to work independently of the government if the liquidity, and eventually, inflation rates are to decline.

The IAEA was also responsible for indices hitting record lows.

TEHRAN, Oct. 7--An outspoken lawmaker here on Friday blamed political slogans for the tumbling indices at the stock market, stressing that speculations such as severance of ties and going to war with some countries could only give rise to a possible stock market collapse.
Iraj Nadimi, rapporteur of Majlis Economic Commission, told ISNA that certain political commentaries will only aggravate the flight of capital.
“Certain slogans, including calls for cutting off ties with some countries as well as those advocating the country’s involvement in a new war along with prevailing mismanagements could accelerate the process of capital flight from the country,“ he said, adding that tumbling indices are caused by growing political and economic instabilities.
He criticized those who are trying to introduce the new government as a ’new revolution’ for causing further instabilities, stressing that the Ahmadinejad administration will, indeed, continue reform procedures at managerial levels.
As the stock market situation worsens day after day, Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) secretary general insisted earlier that the indices will begin to go up within the next few weeks, blaming psychological shocks for tumbling indices.
Hossein Abdeh-Tabrizi said the UN nuclear watchdog’s resolution against Iran was also responsible for indices hitting record lows but fell short of explaining why the situation has become so fragile in the past few months.
There are more than two million shareholders in Iran, where some 80 percent of the capital market is controlled by quasi-state companies.
Most shareholders rushed to sell their shares soon after the market nose-dived on June 25, when the result of the ninth presidential election was announced.
Not only has the market failed to recover from unprecedented panic-selling, it has worsened day in, day out since election day.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the key June 24 vote on a platform of economic and social justice, promising the people that they will ’see the actual outcome of the rise in oil revenues on their tables’.
However experts remain ever more concerned about the prospect of the national economy plunging into a fresh crisis following the drastic fall in stock market indices.

TEHRAN, Oct. 7--Iran Air chief here on Thursday rejected reports that a mafia-like airplane purchase system is operating within the national flag carrier, stressing that the Islamic Republic of Iran Airlines (Homa) has managed to met its requirements despite US sanctions.
According to ISNA, Davood Keshavarzian told reporters that the company’s authorities have not benefited financially from purchase of second-hand aircraft from abroad, adding that dilapidated fleet is the main challenge facing the national aviation industry.
He said that France, under mounting US pressures, has so far refused to deliver VIP airplanes it had already sold to Iran, adding that the government of Iran has gone to court twice to resolve the problem.
“Homa has purchased 17 second-hand airplanes in the past five years,“ he said, adding that the initiative has helped improve but not renovate the fleet.
He said Fokker airplanes have replaced 30-year-old Boeings, adding that Homa has $400 million to purchase new planes.
He criticized the banking system for its failure to provide the national aviation industry with the much-needed financial facilities, stressing that aviation companies have to receive loans from foreign banks to purchase airplanes.
Iran has been unable to purchase brand new airplanes in recent years due to US sanctions.
Quality of air travel services have declined accordingly making passengers ever more dissatisfied with routine delays caused by technical problems.
The Civil Aviation Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CAOIRI) announced earlier that low-cost aviation companies have become operational in a bid to give the air travel industry a new lease on life.
Some eight million people are transported by the aviation industry in Iran per annum. However, experts say only two million people really need to make use of air travel services in the country.

TEHRAN, Oct. 7--Foreign investment will become part of history once the country’s nuclear dossier is sent to United Nation’s Security Council (UNSC) for possible sanctions, said the head of Khorramabad Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines on Friday.
Ali Jahangiri told ILNA that foreign investors will not put their money in countries under economic sanctions and will, instead, invest in countries which are more conducive to import and export of goods.
He said the country might be capable of handling the affairs due to favorable industrial capacities created in recent years, but will certainly face numerous difficulties.
“For instance, the entire work can be stopped if a machine needs a small foreign-made part that has to be imported,“ he said, calling on the country’s officials to abandon their past policies and develop new strategies to resolve the current nuclear stalemate.
“Not only imports will be blocked, but also exports will come to an end, if fresh sanctions were to be imposed against Iran,“ he said.
He said Iran’s accession to World Trade Organization (WTO) will also be affected by possible UNSC sanctions.
Earlier, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines (ICCIM)’s board of representatives, said possible economic sanctions will affect the country’s efforts to improve gross national product and achieve economic growth targets, stressing that North Korea, Cuba and Libya met the same fate.
“A glance at what happened to North Korea, Cuba and Libya (after economic sanctions) will indicate the extent to which sanctions will affect Iran’s economy in the event of its nuclear issue ending up in an embargo,“ Hossein Salimi said.
However other economic experts believe that sanctions will have little impact on the national economy.
They say economic sanctions will help domestic technology improve and will prepare the ground for optimum use of national financial resources.
Vafa Ghaffarian, who heads the Telecommunications Company of Iran, said that if Iran’s nuclear dossier is referred to the United Nations’ Security Council, possible sanctions will not affect the economy given the proper infrastructure created in the country.
Massoud Daneshmand, a member of the ICCIM Presiding Board, said Iran is a vast and powerful country and has the capability of developing its economic interaction with other countries in defiance of possible sanctions.

The highest share of non-oil exports went to the petrochemical sector with 72.9 percent.

TEHRAN, Oct. 7--Iran’s Customs Administration reported that over $3.920 billion worth of non-oil goods were exported during March-September this year, according to IRNA.
“This shows a rise of 19.5 percent compared to the figure for the same period last year,“ the report added.
The figure includes $20 million worth of goods taken out of the country in the form of carry-on luggage and goods valued at $319.3 million traded in border markets.
The highest share of non-oil exports went to the petrochemical sector with 72.9 percent of the total followed by agriculture with 14.3 percent, handicrafts with 7.5 percent and minerals with 5.3 percent.
Comparing the non-oil exports figures in the March-September period with the targets set in the Fourth Five-Year Development Plan (2005-2010), excluding the export of technical and engineering services, indicate that over 92 percent of the plan’s goals were realized, the report added.
The value of non-oil exports topped $10,724.8 million in the year to March, it said.
The figure includes carry-on-luggage and border exports and is 23.6 percent higher than the amount recorded the year before.
Given that the cabinet forecast exports of goods and services worth $10,653 million for the year to March 2005, 100 percent of the goals have been attained, it added.
Of the figure $7,141 million pertains to goods exports, $3.584 million to service exports and $454 million to trade via border markets and carry-on-luggage exports, the report said.
Non-oil exports grew more than 16-fold in 26 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Earnings from export of non-oil goods and services rose to $8.787 billion last year from a mere $543 million in 1979.

ALGIERS, Algeria, Oct. 7--Iran’s Ambassador to Tunisia Baqer Sakhaei conferred with the Tunisian Minister of Industries and Energy Afif Shelbi on expansion of industrial cooperation between the two countries, IRNA reported.
According to Iran’s Embassy in Tunisia, at the meeting, the Tunisian minister referred to the expansion of relations between the two countries in recent years and called for increasing the current level of industrial cooperation.
He further called for enhancing political ties between the two countries.
Potentials in industries and energy sectors have created grounds for more active role of the two sides’ private sectors in the fields, he said adding that Tunisia is ready to provide Iranian industrialists with any facility, mainly in the private sectors, to turn the country to a hub for export of goods to regional countries.
Iranian ambassador, for his part, highlighted the firm determination of Iranian and Tunisian officials to further boost mutual relations and called for removal of existing barriers on export of goods and services by signing an accord on preferential tariffs.