TEHRAN – Iran is the world’s top date exporter, an official with the nation’s Ministry of Agricultural Jihad said.

Enjoying 17 percent of the world’s export of date, Iran is the first exporter of the fruit in the world, the official said adding, however, the Islamic Republic is world’s third producer of the fruit only after Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Persian service of Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted Zahedi as saying on Sunday.

Some 900,000 tons of date is annually produced in Iran and 110,000 tons of the produce is exported to Russia, the Central Asian and West European nations as well as to the countries located in the southern shores of the Persian Gulf.