MASHHAD, Khorassan Prov -- Member of the Majlis Agriculture Commission Seyed Mahmoud Kazemidinan said here on Sunday that rice imports will be suspended until end of the current harvest season.

Kazemidinan told IRNA that moreover, based on an agreement, reached between the Agriculture Ministry and the Economic Council, subsidized distribution of the commodity through the nationwide ration-scheme would be stopped to help increase domestic demand for the product.

The official said in the current farming year more than 230,000 hectares of lands in Northern province of Mazandaran went under rice cultivation and 1,300,000 tons of paddy is expected to be harvested. The Northern province of Mazandaran meets 44 percent of the demand for rice in the domestic market.

He predicted a boom in the local rice market in light of the measures adopted to this effect.

"There is no problem with purchase of rice by government and farmers should not worry about the sale of their crops," said kazemidinan.