Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend: Iran has exported 184 kilogrammes of farmed caviar worth $160,000 in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year which started on March 20, the managing director of Mazandaran province's Fisheries Organisation, Hassan Habibnejad, said on Tuesday.
"The country's caviar export in the mentioned period is five times more than the same period of time in the previous year," the IRIB News Agency quoted Habibnejad as saying.
"Some 4126 tons of fisheries worth $18,808 were also exported from Iran's northern province in the mentioned period," he said.
Habibnejad went on to not that the figures show a 21 and three per cent increase in terms of value and weight, respectively, compared to the time span previous year.
Iran Fisheries Organisation's Director for Caviar Affairs Mahmoud Assadollahi said in October that the country has exported 350 kilogrammes of farmed caviar to Europe from its northern Mazandaran province.
"Iran currently produces less than 20 tons of wild caviar annually," the Fars News Agency quoted Assadollahi as saying.
"If the illegal fishing continues, Iran's wild caviar fish would become extinct in eight years," he said.
It was announced on September 25 that five Caspian Sea region countries have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding to save the sea's caviar stock.
Turkmenistan has prepared the draft of the MoU, the Fars News Agency reported.
The MoU follows the 2012 agreement based upon which the region's countries agreed not to fish caviar fish for five years.
Currently no country is fishing caviar fish in the Caspian Sea.
The Iranian Fishery Organisation Director Gholamreza Razeqi previously said the country's caviar output is projected to reach three tons in the current Iranian calendar year, the IRNA News Agency reported.
He said that some five million sturgeon fries were released by the fishery organisation in the Caspian Sea in the previous calendar year which ended March 20.