TEHRAN- Iran ranks the first in the Middle East in terms of aquaculture production, IRIB reported on Saturday quoting Iran’s Fisheries Production and Trading Union Secretary General Ali-Akbar Khodaei as saying.

Putting the country’s aquaculture production at 320,147 tons, Khodaei also said that Iran ranks the 17th in the world in this due.

The official said with producing 45.4 million tons of different types of fisheries through aquaculture, China stands at the first place in the world.

He also put Turkey with producing 234,000 tons and Pakistan by producing 148,000 tons of fisheries through aquaculture in the second and third places, respectively, in the Middle East after Iran. 

Over 1.05 million tons of fisheries was produced in Iran during the past Iranian calendar year, (ended on March 20), according to Hassan Salehi, the head of Iran’s Fisheries Organization.

The official said the country exported $412 million of fisheries in the past year.

Isa Golshahi, Fisheries Organization's director general for quality improvement, processing, and market development, has said that fishery export up to $450-$500 million has been planned for this year.

After the implementation of nuclear deal with world powers in January 2016, Iranian government has focused on development of domestic fishery industry to attract foreign investments and increase the country's share of the international market, the head of Fisheries Organization said in February.

In this due, related negotiations have been done with some foreign countries such as France, Romania, Finland, Italy, China, Vietnam, Russia, and Thailand, he added.

MA/MG