BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. Fish consumption in Iran decreased by 50 percent over last year (March 21, 2022 through March 20, 2023) compared to 7 years ago (March 21, 2015 through March 20, 2016) when the county’s fish consumption at highest level, Director of Iran's Cold Water Fish Cooperatives Union, Arash Nabizadeh told ILNA, Trend reports.
The director general said that a total of 180,000 tons of fish were consumed in Iran 7 years ago, while the figure dropped to 90,000 tons last Iranian year.
Nabizadeh stressed that the decrease in purchasing power of the population has a serious negative impact on fish consumption. Last year, the price of fish varied between 1.15 million rials (about $27.3) and 9 million rials (about $214) per kilogram, depending on the species.
“The higher prices have led people to remove fish from their market basket,” he noted.
On the other hand, farmers, companies and others engaged in fishing face losses due to higher costs. So, if any producer sells fish at a price lower than 1.08 million rials (about $25.7), he faces losses, Nabizadeh added.
The official also pointed out that the existing situation has to improve, since it is steadily getting worse and worse.
Overall, Iran exported 166,000 tons of fish and related products worth $520 million, during the first nine months of the last Iranian year (March 21, 2022 through December 21, 2022), which is an increase of 67 percent in value and 27 percent in volume compared to the same period in the preceding year.
Iran’s fishery products were exported to various countries, mainly Russia, China, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.
In general, 1.46 million tons of fish and fishery products were planned to be farmed and caught in Iran for the last Iranian year (March 21, 2022 through March 20, 2023).
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