TEHRAN- As stated by the head of National Association of Iranian Dates (NAID), there is the capacity for the export of $1 billion of dates from the country in a year.

Rashid Farokhi said that despite the drought and low rainfall, the annual date production is anticipated to reach 1.2 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2022).

Every year, 30 percent of the product is exported and the rest is consumed in the domestic market, he added.

Iran has exported over 60,000 tons of date to 52 countries during the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-July 21), the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Ruhollah Latifi put the value of the four-month export at $53.051 million, and mentioned Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Qatar, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Britain, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, China, and Hungary as some of the export destinations of Iranian date, IRIB reported.

The official said that through importing $9.729 million worth of date, Iraq was the major importer of the Iranian product, while Pakistan and Kazakhstan came next, importing $7.647 million, and $5.91 million worth of the product, respectively.

Every year, up to 1.2 million tons of various types of dates are produced in 203,763 hectares of land in Iran, making the country the second largest producer in terms of production and area under cultivation and the fifth largest exporter.

The acting head of Agriculture Ministry’s Economic Affairs Department Shahrokh Shajari has put Iran’s exports of the agricultural and foodstuff products at about 7.104 million tons worth $5.8 billion in the past Iranian calendar year.

In the previous year, over 6.941 million tons of the mentioned products worth $6.392 billion were also imported into the country, according to Shajari.

Watermelons, apples, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and shallots were the top five exported products in the previous year in terms of weight, while in terms of value, pistachios, apples, tomatoes, pistachio kernels, and watermelons were the five major export products, the official said.

Shajari further pointed to the major imported items in terms of weight, saying, corn, barley, soybean meal, soybean, and untreated sugar were the top five imported items, while in terms of value livestock corn, rice, barley, and soybeans were the top imported products.

Also, the head of Tehran Fruit and Vegetable Traders Union has said his union is planning to export over two million tons of fruits in the current Iranian calendar year.

“This year, our total production will be 4.5 million tons, of which 2.5 million tons will be consumed domestically, and another two million is intended for export, and we are planning to export to Russia, Iraq, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan,” Mostafa Daraei-Nejad said.

Referring to the situation of the fruit and vegetable market, the official said: “There are about 67 items of fruits and vegetables in the market, none of which we lack. We have only 2.5 million tons of fruit production in Mazandaran province.”

MA/MA