TEHRAN – Exports by Iran’s rural cooperatives is expected to increase by 300 percent in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2024), as compared to the previous year, an official with the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives of Iran said.

According to Ruhollah Latifi, the director general of the Business Monitoring and Development Office of the mentioned organization, rural cooperatives in Iran exported over $135 million worth of commodities in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-November 21) while the total exports from the mentioned entities was $50 million in the previous year.

Considering the current trend, the exports are expected to be 300 percent more than the previous year, Latifi said in a meeting of the export development committee of cooperatives and rural and agricultural organizations.

“With the policies of the government and the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, the export of agricultural and rural products from cooperatives will be four times the amount of exports of these products in the previous year,” he explained.

According to Latifi, the total export of food and agricultural products last year stood at about $5.150 billion, while only in the first eight months of the current year $3.5 billion of such products have been exported.

Eggs, fruit concentrate, dates, apples, citrus fruits and industrial milk powder were the main items exported in the first eight months of the current Iranian year, Latifi said.

“The network of rural and agricultural cooperatives, despite the high share in the production of agricultural products, livestock and fisheries in the country, directly or with the cooperation of members, have a small share in exports,” he said.

EF/MA