TEHRAN- Iran’s export of olives has risen 34 percent during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21), compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to a provincial official.

As announced by Farhad Dalqpoush, the head of Industry, Mining and Trade Department of Gilan Province (in the north of Iran where olive is cultivated vastly), the country has exported 129,409 tons of olives during the seven-month period.

Olives are grown in 27 other provinces, but Gilan has 11 percent of the total area under olive cultivation and 20 percent of the country's olive production, the official stated.

Support for this product is on the agenda, as it has high capacity to be exported, he noted.

Olive oil production in Iran reached 11,600 tons in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), the manager of the Agriculture Ministry’s “Olive Project” initiative has announced.

“Olive oil production in our country is in a good place and the production of this product has increased from 3,300 tons in [the Iranian calendar year] 1391 (ended in March 2013) to 11,600 tons in 1398 (last year),” Rahmatolah Parichehr has stated.

The official has stated that in the year of "surge in production", the quantitative and qualitative increase of olive oil production and also the increase of its per capita consumption is on Agriculture Ministry’s agenda.

“The per capita consumption of this product in the world is 500 grams and we have planned to reach the global average,” Parichehr said.

The official has also said that demand for olive oil in Iran exceeds 12,000 tons per year and the shortage is mainly imported from Turkey, Italy, Spain and Greece.

The Agriculture Ministry’s olive project scheme titled the “National Plan for Development of Olive Cultivation and Processing” seeks to increase olive oil production in Iran to a level where the country would have no further needs for import.

MA/MA