TEHRAN – The Trade Promotion Organization of Iran director stated here on Wednesday that pistachio exports would bring the country $1.5b by the end of the calendar year (March 20, 2010).

ISNA news agency quoted Mehdi Ghazanfari as saying: ""Some 20,000 tons of pistachio were exported in the first three months of the current Iranian year (started March 21).""
He rated the price of Iranian pistachio in international markets at approximately $8,000 per ton. Iran exports pistachio to 90 countries, he added.
Iran ranks the world's largest pistachio producer and exporter followed by USA and Turkey. Pistachio is the top non-oil export of Iran, earning the country more than $1 billion in hard currency every year and providing about 140,000 jobs for farmers