TEHRAN – Head of Iran Fisheries Organization (IFO) says new export destinations have welcomed Iran’s high-quality fishery products in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 19), Tasnim reported.

New markets including China, South Korea, and the Eurasian Union nations have opened up for Iranian fishery products in the current year, Nabiolah Khoun-Mirzaei said.

“Based on the negotiations and agreements signed between Iran and China last year by the minister of agriculture, the Chinese fishery market has been opened to Iranian products. The Eurasian nations and South Korean markets have also welcomed Iranian fishery products and have the potential for exports,” Khoun-Mirzaei explained.

The official noted that according to the Iranian Statistics Center’s data, the agricultural sector grew by about six percent in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22, 2019).

“We hope this trend will continue up to the end of the year,” he added.

The official put Iran’s fishery exports in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2018-March 2019) at $528 million, saying that the country’s trade balance was reported to be $475 million positive in this sector.

Back in November 2019, Isa Golshahi, Fishery Organization's director-general for quality improvement, processing, and market development, said the country’s annual exports of fishery products is anticipated to reach 150,000 tons valued at $600 million in the current Iranian calendar year.

The official put the exports of fishery products at 143,000 tons worth $528 million in the past Iranian year.

According to the deputy head of Fishery Organization Hossein Ali Abdolhay, some 12 aquatic species are already bred in Iran and the figure is planned to reach 17 by the end of the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (March 2021).

EF/MA