TEHRAN Iranian sugar processing plants managed to produce 1.44 million tons of sugar from sugar beets and sugarcane in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), an official with the countrys Agriculture Ministry said.According to Peyman Hesadi, the director of the Agriculture Ministrys sugar plants project, considering the climatic conditions and rainfalls in the current year, the production is also expected to reach at least this figure, IRIB reported.The country needs 2.2 million tons of sugar every year, and the rest of the required sugar must be imported, Hesadi said.EF/MA