Spring cultivation expected to yield 4.4m tons of sugar
beet, official says

A total of 4.4 million tons of sugar beet are estimated to
be produced from spring cultivation carried out on 79,000 hectares of
plantations across the country, according to an official with Iran’s Ministry
of Agriculture.

“So far, close to 1.4 million tons
of sugar beet grown in spring direct seeding have been harvested, showing a
increase of 48 percent compared to the same period last year” Peyman Hesadi was
also quoted as saying.

He added, “We expect to harvest close to 4.4 million tons in
the spring cultivation.”

Hesadi further said that 20,000 hectares of land have gone
under cultivation for autumn.

Last year, the provinces of West Azarbaijan, Khorasan
Razavi, Fars and Kermanshah were major sugar beet producers for spring
cultivation while the provinces of Khuzestan, Khorasan Razavi and Golestan were
the biggest ones for autumn cultivation.

Each Iranian consumes 26-30 kg of sugar on average annually.