Financial Tribune- More than 8 million tons of wheat worth close to 105 trillion rials ($2.74 billion) have been purchased from local farmers across the country so far this year, a deputy chairman of Government Trading Corporation of Iran said on Thursday.

�Khouzestan in the south with 1.35 million tons, Golestan in the north with 1.1 million tons and Fars in the southwest with 900,000 tons top the list of provinces from where the purchases were made,� Hassan Abbasi Maroufan was also quoted as saying by Young Journalists Club.

A record high of 14 million tons of wheat were domestically produced last year, more than 11.76 million tons of which worth over $4 billion were purchased by the government from local farmers at guaranteed prices. This helped Iran achieve self-sufficiency in wheat production for the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic.

Deputy Agriculture Minister and GTC Chairman Ali Qanbari said it is estimated that this year too, about 11 million tons of the grain will be purchased and the self-sufficiency attained last year will endure in the current year.

GTC is a government-owned company specializing in the purchase, import and distribution of essential foodstuff. It is the lever for enforcing market controls.