Syria expects a good wheat harvest this year and production could reach 3 million to 4 million tonnes, a Syrian official said on Monday.

Suleiman al-Nasser, director general of state-owned General Establishment for Cereal Processing and Trade (Hoboob), also said Syria had bought 1.2 million tonnes of wheat for import since the start of 2009.

About 300,000 tonnes had already arrived with the rest coming by the end of August, he said in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the sidelines of a grains conference.

'We are expecting a good harvest this year and we could be producing around 3 to 4 million tonnes,' he told reporters.

Syria, which has exported wheat since the 1990s as a result of the government's controversial strategy of increasing production from semi-arid areas, turned into a wheat importer last year following one of the worst harvests on record.-Reuters