Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
Iran has exported 141 kilograms of farmed caviar from the northern Gilan province to England, the managing director of Gilan Province Veterinary Organization, Sohrab Aghebati said on Jan. 27.
"The country earned some $256,630 by exporting the mentioned amount of caviar," Aghebati explained.
"There are 24 kinds of caviar fish in the word," he said, adding that five of them live in the Caspian Sea.
The managing director of Mazandaran province's Fisheries Organization, Hassan Habibnejad, said in November that Iran exported 184 kilograms of farmed caviar worth $160,000 in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21.
"The country's caviar export in the mentioned period is five times more than the same period of time last year," Iran's IRIB News Agency quoted Habibnejad as saying.
Iran Fisheries Organization's Director for Caviar Affairs Mahmoud Assadollahi said in October that the country has exported 350 kilograms 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 will become extinct in 8 years," he said.
It was announced on Sept. 25 that five Caspian Sea region countries have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding to save the sea's caviar fish.
Turkmenistan has prepared the draft of the MoU, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.
The MoU follows a 2012 agreement based on 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 Organization Director Gholamreza Razeqi previously said that the country's caviar output is projected to hit 3 tons in the current Iranian calendar year, the IRNA News Agency reported.