TEHRAN- Iran exported 111,122 tons of pistachio worth $738,456,417 during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21, 2021), the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Rouhollah Latifi said Iran’s pistachio was exported to 70 different countries during the mentioned nine months, IRNA.

Importing 32,713 tons of pistachio valued at $188.785 million, China was the first export destination for Iranian pistachio, while India, Russia, Iraq, and Kazakhstan came next, importing 10,859 tons, 6,710 tons, 6,233 tons, and 6,150 tons of pistachio, respectively.

According to Latifi, of the total exported pistachio, 13,745 tons worth over $152.393 were pistachio kernels which were shipped to 54 different countries including India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq, Germany, and Turkey.

Iran also exported 275 tons of sliced pistachio kernels valued at over $3.358 million in the mentioned nine months, Latifi said.

The UAE, Qatar, Iraq, Turkey, and Germany were the top importers of the sliced pistachio kernels.

The official noted that the country’s pistachio exports decreased 19 percent both in terms of value and weight during the said time span compared to the previous year’s same period.

According to the Director-General of the Iranian Agriculture Ministry’s office of cold and dry fruits Darab Hasani, the country had exported 203,637 tons of pistachios worth $1.371 billion in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2021).

As recently announced by the secretary-general of the Iran Pistachio Association (IPA), the production of pistachio in Iran is estimated to fall 70,000 tons in the current year.

Hossein Rezaei said that the next year's sprouts have also been destroyed by climate change, and this year it is difficult to keep the market, so government support is required.

“Iran Pistachio Association will announce the exact statistics of pistachio production this year after the end of the harvest, in the eight Iranian calendar month Aban (October 23-November 21), but our estimate is that the output will be 140,000-150,000 tons”, he stated.

In August 2020, Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) held a pistachio export desk meeting to investigate the challenges and barriers in the way of the country’s pistachio exports.

Addressing the meeting, TPO former Head Hamid Zadboum put emphasis on the significant status of pistachio in Iran’s export basket as the top agricultural export item and said that a national view toward removing the pistachio export barriers should be adopted.

EF/MA