TEHRAN - The value of Iran’s fishery export has risen 35 percent in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-July 22), compared to the same period of time in the past year.

According to Abbas Mokhtari, the director general of the Agriculture Ministry’s Office of Quality Improvement, Processing, and Aquatic Market Development, some 68,135 tons of fisheries and aquaculture products worth $114.748 million were exported during the mentioned four months, also registering a 32 percent rise in terms of weight, IRIB reported.

In the first four months of this year, 31,000 tons of all kinds of fish worth $50 million, as well as 2.208 million tons of tuna fish worth two million dollars, $34 million of shrimp, 142 tons of ornamental fish worth $167,000 dollars, 1.451 million tons of canned fish worth $6 million and one ton of caviar and caviar substitute worth $631,000 were exported, Mokhtari explained.

The official put the imports of fishery products in this period at 4,078 tons worth $12.301 million, saying: “The imports increased by 272 percent in terms of weight and 148 percent in terms of value compared to the same period last year.”

Iran's aquaculture industry is on a wave of progress and has world ranks in the production of some fishery products.

According to the head of the Iran Fisheries Organization (IFO), the country exported $600 million worth of fishery products in the previous Iranian calendar year 1401.

Announcing a positive balance of $520 million in the previous year, Hossein Hosseini said that there is a capacity of up to $2 billion in exports for the country's fishery industry.

It is worth mentioning that the growth and development of Iran’s aquaculture industry has reached the point where the country has become a model for the countries of the region and the world.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes that Iran plays a responsible and central role in the fishing and aquaculture industry in the region, and for this reason, it can be considered a model for the countries of the region.

Now the world markets have become the target of the export of the country's fishery products, so that, the value of fishery exports also increased by 67 percent in the Iranian calendar year 1400 compared to the preceding year.

In addition to the executive role of the IFO, the role of research and knowledge-based activities in this field is very important, and the entry of young specialists and knowledge-based experts in various sectors of the fishery industry has made the sanctions ineffective.

EF/MA