Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.20 / Trend R.Zamanov /
To date, Iran caught 88 tons of bony fish in the Caspian Sea from the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21).
The value of the mentioned amount of fish is estimated at 15 billion rials (some $483,870 based on the price of USD at the free market).
The figure is estimated to hit over 4,000 tons by the end of the current Iranian calendar year.
Deputy Head of Iran Fisheries Organization Ali-Asghar Mojahedi said in September that Iran's total bony fish catch in the previous calendar year (which ended March 20) stood at 16,000 tons.
"Iran's bony fish catch has been on the rise in the past 12 years," the IRNA News Agency quoted Mojahedi as saying.
Deputy Agricultural Jihad Minister Gholam-Reza Razeghi said in July that Iran's total fish export is expected to hit $350 million by the end of the current calendar year.
"Iraq, Spain, France, Germany, and Italy are the main destination markets for Iran's fish," Razeghi stated, adding that Russia and Ukraine are the new markets for Iran's fish exports.
The Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, Kioumars Fathollah Kermanshahi said in May that some 56,000 tons of fish (worth of $214 million) was exported from Iran in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20.
The figures show a 5.4 and 3.7 per cent increase in terms of value and weight, respectively in comparison to its preceding year, the IRNA News Agency quoted him as saying.
The European and Asian countries including France, Germany, Switzerland, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkmenistan were the main destinations.
Iran's annual catch in fishery sector was around 500,000 tons in the previous year.
Iran's total catch stood at 450,000 tons two years ago. The catch off the southern coast totaled 412,000 tons in the mentioned year, while the catch off the northern coast totaled 38,000 tons.