Baku, Azerbaijan, April 29
Trend:
Domestic production meets only one sixth (16 percent) of Iran’s demand for butter, Ali Osat Hashemi, head of Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives of Iran (CORC), said.
He said that Iran imports 45,000 tons of butter, worth $400 million per year, the official website of the CORC reported.
Osat Hashemi said that Iran’s raw milk output stands at over 9 million tons per year.
He further said that following the implementation of the government’s supportive plan to purchase raw milk from producers, Iran’s powdered milk and cream exports has witnessed increase in recent three years.
The official said that the Islamic Republic has exported $100 million worth of powdered milk and cream in the three-year period.
Within the supportive plan, the Iranian government purchased 203,000 tons of raw milk, worth 2,648.83 billion rials (each USD makes 42,000 rials) from producers last fiscal year, ended March 2018, he said.
Over 15,890 tons of powdered milk and 17,611 tons of cream were produced from the purchased milk in the period, Ovsat Hashemi added.
Agricultural and food products accounted for 13 percent of Iran’s total non-oil exports during the last fiscal year as the country exported 6.130 million tons of agricultural and food products, 5 percent more year-on-year.
The value of the exports reached $5.93 billion, 4 percent more compared to the preceding year.
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.
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