A total of 80,000 tons of pistachio worth $533 million were exported from Iran during the first seven months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Oct. 22), according to an Agriculture Ministry official, Darab Hassani.
On average, Iran exports 80% of its total pistachio yields. Vietnam, Hong Kong, Germany, the UAE, India, Iraq, Russia and Turkey are Iran’s traditional export markets.
“A total of 281,000 tons of pistachio have been produced this year to register a 21% decline compared with last year’s yields,” he said, adding that the reasons for the decline in production was extreme weather, i.e., extreme cold in spring and unprecedented high temperatures in the summer, “as well as the fact that the pistachio tree is alternate bearing”.