A total of 151,000 tons of fishery products worth $535 million were exported from Iran to 21 countries in the last Iranian year (March 2021-22), registering a 23% and 13.83% rise compared with the year before, according to the head of Fishery Production and Trade Union.
“Our main exported products were farmed shrimp, carp, trout, fish powder, canned fish and farmed caviar, which headed to Southeast Asia, the littoral states of the Persian Gulf and Europe,” Ali Akbar Khodaei was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
He explained that the exports included 48,000 tons of inedible fish, 36,000 tons of farmed shrimp, 30,000 tons of fish feed, 18,000 tons of warm water fish, 11,000 tons of canned fish, 3,800 tons of trout, 3,800 tons of farmed caviar and 256 tons of ornamental fish.
According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, the volume of shrimp exports from Iran in 2021-22 marked a 140% rise compared with the 10-year average (15,300 tons) and a 67% increase compared with the five-year average (21,750 tons), Seairan.com reported.
The Fishery Production and Trade Union of Iran wrote on its website that 95% of last year’s overall exports were farmed shrimp.
Iran’s main export destinations during the period under review were China with 14,200 tons, the UAE with 11,200 tons and the Russian Federation with 4,150 tons. Other traditional customers of Iranian shrimp are Turkey, Iraq, Spain and France.
Iran is a major seafood producer in the region with trout, caviar and shrimp as main exported products. The southern Bushehr Province is Iran’s farmed shrimp production hub.
Hormozgan, also in the south of the country, is another major producer.
Iran’s fishery sector has created a total of 233,059 direct and indirect jobs.