Deputy Minister of Agricultural and Head of Iran Fisheries Organization Hassan Salehi made the remarks adding “in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), Iran took a major step in the fisheries sector by realizing a production of nearly one million and 100 thousand tons of aquatic species.”
Of the overall output, 54% pertained to fishing in the sea and mainly free waters while the remaining 46 per cent resulted from farming fishery products giving the country the top position in this regard, he underlined.
He said the country gained a good position in the industry last year with exports of 120 thousand tons of fishery products and revenue of 412 million dollars.
“Over 400 processing centers are currently active in various fishery sectors like canning, powder production and packaging giving way to creation of 220,000 direct jobs.”
Salehi stressed that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) had played a huge role in the Iranian fishery industry asserting “Russia restricted imports from Europe and the US in retaliation for their sanctions creating an invaluable market for Iranian products.” The official, while noting that Iran still needs to work on establishing proper infrastructure for meeting demands of foreign buyers like Russia, said “today, Russians are putting a demand for 100,000 tons of Iranian fishery products, shrimp in particular.”
Deputy minister of agriculture went on to note that, following JCPOA implementation, three thousand tons of these products have been deployed to the Russian market.
“Last year 10,000 tons of the overall 160,000 tons of produced trout were exported while the figure for the present year has been targeted at 30,000 tons.”
The official further underscored that Iran has a low per capita consumption of about 10 kilograms while the global average stands at 20kg; “in a bid to boost people’s health, the current per capita needs to rise by producing processed products.”
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