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Hot climate damages 40 per cent of pistachio farms in Iran’s Rafsanjan area

Iran Materials 12 August 2013 13:48 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug.12/ Trend F.Karimov/

The exceptionally hot climate during this summer has damaged 40 per cent of the pistachio farm crops in Rafsanjan, the Mehr News Agency quoted Rafsanjan agriculture department director Reza Bemani as saying. Rafsanjan is a city in the southeast of Iran.

In recent days the temperature rose to 44 degrees Celsius in the region, he said.

Some 86,000 hectares farming land in Rafsanjan is under the cultivation of pistachio, he added.

Low precipitation has worsened the situation, he noted.

According to statistics, some 440,000 hectares area of land is under pistachio cultivation. Iran may lose its stance as the world's largest pistachio exporter in the near future, head of Iran's Nuts and Dried Fruits Sellers Union has said.

"Iran's exports with the product have faced 20-30 present decrease due to Forex prices fluctuations," the ISNA News Agency quoted Mostafa Ahmadi as saying.

"The USA will take Iran's position as the world's biggest pistachio exporter unless we increase our production," he said.

"Domestic consumption accounts for 20 per cent of Iran's total output, while the figure is around 40 - 50 per cent in the USA," Ahmadi added.

He went on to note that the pistachio price has fallen to 430,000 rials ($13.8 based on the price of USD at the free market) per kilo, showing a 100,000 rials decrease.

The ISNA News Agency reported on July 20 that the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Russia, Germany and Iraq were the main importers of Iran's pistachio in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year which started March 21.

Iran exported a total of 10.5 tons of pistachio worth $86.7 million in the aforementioned period.

The figure shows 3.7 and 4.8 per cent increase in terms of weight and value respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Iran also exported 1400 tons of pistachio nuts worth $22.6 million in the same period which is 46 per cent less than the previous year's first quarter.

Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Organisation of Iran, Kioumars Fathollah Kermanshahi said in March that Iran exported more than 128,600 tons of pistachio worth $1.14 billion in the previous calendar year which ended March 20.

The figures showed five and 6.8 per cent increase in terms of value and weight, respectively in comparison to its preceding year, the IRNA News Agency quoted Fathollah Kermanshahi as saying.

The United Arab Emirates, Russia, Germany and Netherlands were the main importers of Iranian pistachios.

Iran banned exports of pistachio in February in a bid to curb rising prices in the domestic market. Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi had ordered the stopping of pistachio exports for six months in order to help regulate prices, the Fars News Agency reported. However, it was announced a week later that the ban had been lifted.

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