TEHRAN- Iran exported 137,000 tons of dates in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), which was 14 percent more than the exported amount in the same period of time in the past year, an official with Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) announced.

Mahmoud Bazari, director-general of TPO’s Coordination Office for Development of Agro Products Export and Processing Industries, also said that Iran’s date export has risen 10 percent in terms of value as compared to the same time span of the past year.

The official named India, France, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Britain, the U.S., Indonesia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada as the major buyers of Iranian date.

As stated by the head of National Association of Iranian Dates (NAID), there is the capacity for the export of $1 billion of dates from the country in a year.

Rashid Farokhi has said that despite the drought and low rainfall, the annual date production is anticipated to reach 1.2 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2022).

Every year, 30 percent of the product is exported and the rest is consumed in the domestic market, he added.

Every year, up to 1.2 million tons of various types of dates are produced in 203,763 hectares of land in Iran, making the country the second largest producer in terms of production and area under cultivation and the fifth largest exporter.

The acting head of Agriculture Ministry’s Economic Affairs Department Shahrokh Shajari has put Iran’s exports of the agricultural and foodstuff products at about 7.104 million tons worth $5.8 billion in the past Iranian calendar year.

In the previous year, over 6.941 million tons of the mentioned products worth $6.392 billion were also imported into the country, according to Shajari.

Watermelons, apples, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and shallots were the top five exported products in the previous year in terms of weight, while in terms of value, pistachios, apples, tomatoes, pistachio kernels, and watermelons were the five major export products, the official said.

Shajari further pointed to the major imported items in terms of weight, saying, corn, barley, soybean meal, soybean, and untreated sugar were the top five imported items, while in terms of value livestock corn, rice, barley, and soybeans were the top imported products.

Also, the head of Tehran Fruit and Vegetable Traders Union has said his union is planning to export over two million tons of fruits in the current Iranian calendar year.

“This year, our total production will be 4.5 million tons, of which 2.5 million tons will be consumed domestically, and another two million is intended for export, and we are planning to export to Russia, Iraq, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan,” Mostafa Daraei-Nejad said.

Referring to the situation of the fruit and vegetable market, the official said: “There are about 67 items of fruits and vegetables in the market, none of which we lack. We have only 2.5 million tons of fruit production in Mazandaran province.”

MA/MA