TEHRAN- The fishery output of Kermanshah province, in the west of Iran, stood at over 21,000 tons in the past Iranian calendar year 1400 (ended on March 20), a provincial official announced.

Farzad Afzali, the director-general of the province’s Fisheries Department, said that while the province's fishery production was expected to be around 23,000 tons last year, this goal was not achieved due to drought and declining water resources in the province, and eventually 21,105 tons of fisheries were produced in the province.

Last year, 13,000 tons of cold-water fishes and 5,500 tons of hot-water fishes were produced in the province, and the rest of the products were related to fish farming in cages, aquatic production in natural and semi-natural waters, and so on, the official added.

As stated by an official with Iran Fisheries Organization (IFO), production of 714,000 tons of fishery has been targeted for the current Iranian calendar year.

Morteza Afrasiabi, the acting head of the IFO’s fishery development department, said that of the mentioned figure, 277,000 tons will be fishes bred in cages and 70,000 tons will be shrimps.

Achieving the targeted 714,000 tons of fishery requires infrastructure as well as credits and banking facilities, the official added.

Fishery production has increased noticeably in Iran in recent years.

Enjoying high quality, Iran’s fishery products were sold easily in the export markets, and also some new export destinations welcomed these products in the past three years; as new markets including China, South Korea, and the Eurasian Union nations opened up for Iranian fishery products.

MA/MA