Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran is the among the biggest shrimp producers in the region, Hassan Salehi, head of the Iranian Fisheries Organization, said.
He noted that the country’s shrimp cultivation is planed to reach 60,000 tons by 2021, based on the Islamic Republic’s sixth development.
Salehi told reporters Feb. 4 that Iran’s shrimp export has registered a huge rise by 80 percent during the current fiscal year (started March 20, 2017).
Iran's shrimp farms are mainly located in southern Bushehr, Hormozgan, Khozestan provinces as well as northern Golestan province.
The country’s shrimp output is expected to reach 30,000 tons during the current fiscal year(to end March 2018). The figure will be 43 percent more compared to 21,320 tons of shrimp farmed in Iran the last fiscal year.
The country’s shrimp output was 12,698 tons in the fiscal year to March 2016.
Iran exported 15,177 tons of shrimp, worth $72 million during the first nine months of the current fiscal year(March-December 2017). Meanwhile the country’s overall shrimp export in the last fiscal year (ended March 2017) stood at 15,049, worth $70 million.
Salehi further said that Iran started producing fishes in cages in last year with an output of 10,000 tons, adding that during the current fiscal year20,000 tons of fish were cultivated in cages.
Currently, 470 cages in sea are in use for fish cultivation, the official said.
Iran has the capacity to produce 1 million tons of fish in cages in the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, according to the country’s fishery officials.
Salehi also said that Iran plans to produce 60,000 tons of trout per year.
The figure has reached 6,000 tons during the current fiscal year, he added.
Iran’s overall fishery exports reached 82,451 tons, worth $283 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.
Iran’s fishery exports in the last fiscal year (ended on March 20, 2017) accounted for $412 million.
The country’s fishery output also stood at 460,000 tons in the same period.
About 200,000 Iranians are active in about 70,000 aquaculture and fishing centers across Iran.