Iran has exported 390,000 tons of fresh dates, valued at $345 million, in the previous Iranian calendar year to late March, according to the head of the Iranian National Dates Association.
Mohsen Rashid Farrokhi said that the figures show a seven percent rise in terms of volume and a ten percent growth in value terms compared to a year earlier.
About 1.3 million tons of dates are produced in the country annually, 70 percent of which is used in the country for domestic consumption while the other 30 percent is exported overseas, he added.
The director general of Iran’s Ministry of Agriculture for tropical- and semi-tropical fruits has also highlighted the growth in the export of tropical fruits in the country last year.
Iran’s date production volume rose from 1.59 million tons to 1.65 million tons in the previous Iranian calendar year, showing a four percent decline compared to a year before, Zahra Jalili Moghadam noted.
Earlier, the chairman of the Iranian National Date Association said Iran is the third-largest producer of fresh dates in the world.