Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Head of Iran Fisheries Organization Hassan Salehi said caviar was not farmed in previous years saying “good measures have been taken recently as 1.5 tons of caviar and over 600 tons of sturgeon meat was produced and the figures is expected to reach 3 tons for the former and 1000 tons for the later in the present year.”
The official highlighted that target figures for the 6th five-year National Development Plan were 10 tons of caviar and 10 thousand tons of sturgeon meat.
Salehi noted that Iran’s first cargo of farmed caviar had arrived in US markets in the previous week adding “despite several years of hiatus in caviar exports to America, a new and large market is forming in North America given high consumption rates of fisheries.”
He underlined that over 80 thousand tons of fisheries worth 350 million dollars were exported in 2015 expressing hope that the value will climb to 380 million dollars in the ongoing year.
Hassan Salehi deemed European states, South East Asian countries, Caspian Sea littoral and Eurasian states as well as Persian Gulf and Middle Eastern countries as major destinations for Iran’s fisheries products.
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