TEHRAN - A total of 44 tons of caviar was obtained in this northern Iranian province last year, constituting 35 percent of the country's total caviar output. Dirctor of the production and exploitation Department at the provincial fisheries organization Mahmoud Assadollahi said here on Saturday that 95 percent of the province's caviar output are exported while the remaining five percent are consumed domestically.

Assadollahi told a number of reporters that 60 of 260 tons of sturgeon meat were exported from this province abroad last year. He added that the amount of sturgeon fish netted by Iran and other Caspian Sea littoral states dropped to less than 5,000 tons from 28,000 tons in 1978. (IRNA)