Agriculture Minister Sadeq Khalilian announced that the country is doing so well that it will be able to export as much as 2 million tons of wheat this year, according to a report in the Jam-e Jam daily.
Iran has been importing wheat in most years over the last half-century. Three decades ago the revolutionaries condemned the regime of the Shah for importing wheat and allowing foreigners to throttle Iran because of its dependency. But there have been more years of wheat imports under the revolutionary regime than under the monarchy.
In November 2004, President Mohammad Khatami announced that Iran had finally returned to self-sufficiency in wheat.
He also said, “Self-reliance in the global wheat market, which Westerners dominate, serves Iran’s national security and interests.” He did not explain how the Islamic Republic had ever been forced to its knees by its many years of dependence on imports—including at least one year in which Iran was the largest importer of wheat in the world.
But self-sufficiency has been an ideological touchstone of the revolution. State television announced that Iran’s wheat production in 2004 reached 14 million tons, well above the country’s annual consumption of about 11 million tons. Still, Iran has had to import wheat in many, though not all, of the years since then
Khatami said that having achieved self-sufficiency in wheat, the Islamic Republic would move to become self-sufficient in other agricultural products. Little has been said about the costs of production; it is not known if domestically grown wheat costs more than wheat imports.