Baku, Azerbaijan, April 17
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
Agricultural and food products accounted for 13 percent of Iran’s total non-oil exports during the last fiscal year, ended March 20, Kaveh Zargaran, the Secretary General of the Federation of Iranian Food Associations, said.
Zargaran told reporters that Iran exported 6.130 million tons of agricultural and food products in the last fiscal year, 5 percent more year-on-year.
The value of the exports reached $5.93 billion, 4 percent more compared to the preceding year, he added.
Zargaran, who serves as the Chairman of the Agricultural Commission in the Tehran Chamber of Commerce as well, said that the pistachios, dairy products, sweets and chocolates, saffron, apples, dates and tomato paste were the main exported products in agriculture and food sector, noting that Iran exported $3.5 billion worth of these products in the last fiscal year, equal to 59 percent of the overall value of agricultural exports in the period.
Iranian food industry exports amounted to 1.941 million tons in the 12-month period, 17 percent more year-on-year, he said.
The value of the exports in this sector was some $2.824 billion, registering a fall by 1.7 percent, according to Zargaran.
Dairy products had the biggest share in Iran’s food industry exports. Iran exported 381,000 tons of the products, worth $706 million, registering fall by 12 percent in terms of volume and 9 percent in terms of value, year-on-year, respectively.
Sweets and chocolates ($590 million), tomato paste ($192 million), juice and fruit concentrates ($138 million), potato products ($123 million) and flour ($92 million) were the country’s other top exports in food industry , Zargaran said.
Last fiscal year, Iran’s export of pistachio amounted to 130,000 tons, worth $1.175 billion, he said, adding that pistachio export registered a decrease by 7,000 tons in terms of volume and $96 million in value terms compared to the preceding year.
Zargaran went on to say that the export of Saffron in the ast fiscal year was more than 236 tons, worth $325 million, which saw a growth of 55 percent in terms of volume and 56 percent in terms of value, year-on-year.
He further said that Iran exported 253,000 tons of date, worth $250 million and 604,000 tons of apple, worth $256 million (71 percent increase in terms of volume and 132 percent in terms of value).
Zargaran said that Iraq, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates were the top destinations of Iran’s agricultural and food exports in the last fiscal year.
More than half of the exports in agricultural and food sector in terms of value falls on these three countries, he said, adding that the Iraqi market is the largest export market for Iran's agricultural and food products.
Iran exported 3.04 million tons of agricultural and food industry products, worth $2.106 billion to Iraqi market in last fiscal year, Zargaran noted.
However he added that Iran’s food and agricultural exports to Iraq witnessed 9 and 5 percent fall in terms of volume and value, respectively, year-on-year.
Zargaran said that export of food and agricultural products to Iraq, UAE, Vietnam, Turkmenistan, Spain and Thailand witnessed decline in the last fiscal year, while exports to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Hong Kong , Germany, Turkey, Russia and India increased.