TEHRAN- The export of caviar and sturgeon meat from Iran’s northern Mazandaran province has increased 15 percent in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 20, 2020), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to a provincial official.

Hassan Es’haqi, the director-general of the province’s fisheries department, announced that 1,029 kilograms of the mentioned products worth $532,000 has been exported from Mazandaran since the year start.

The official named Britain, Qatar, Azerbaijan, Russia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the main export destinations of the province’s caviar.

In early October 2020, the deputy head of the Iran Fisheries Organization (IFO) had said that Iran is anticipated to experience a surge in the annual production of sturgeon meat in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20).

Hossein Abdolhay put the country’s sturgeon meat output at 2,500 tons in the past year.

Iranian Agriculture Minister Kazem Khavazi has stated that his ministry supports the cage culture plans.

The minister also said that the Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute helps those active in the implementation of these plans.

Referring to the request of the units active in the cage culture for the development of this sector, Khavazi said, “This sector was unknown in the country at the time of its establishment; related issues and the probable problems were unclear, but now we do not have any limitation for the development of this sector and entrance of new investors in this area.”

Fishery production has increased noticeably in Iran in recent years.

IFO Head Nabiollah Khoun-Mirzaei has put the country’s annual fishery output at 1.28 million tons in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19, 2020), and said the figure is anticipated to reach 1.37 million tons this year, and surpass 1.5 million tons in the next year.

Khoun-Mirzaei has announced that the country’s fishery export stood at 146,000 tons worth $538.9 million in the past Iranian year, while the import was 29,000 tons valued at $98.9 million, so Iran’s fishery trade balance was $440 million in the previous year.

MA/MA