TEHRAN- As announced by a provincial official, 220 fish farms are active in Ilam province, in the west of Iran.

Reza Soleymani, the director-general of the province’s Fisheries Department, said that these farms breed over 10,000 tons of cold-water and warm-water fishes.

Some noticeable part of the produced fishery is consumed inside the province, and nearly 4,000 tons, which is surplus, is exported to Iraq, he 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 1400 (started on March 21).

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