Mahmoud Abtahi, chairman of the board of directors at the Iranian Pistachio Association, said the figure shows an 83% drop comparing to the corresponding period of last year, during which Iran exported over 48,000 tons of the product.
The official noted that Iranian farmers harvested close to 60,000 tons of pistachio during the current fiscal (started in March), that also shows a huge drop year on year.
Saying that water shortage and climate change are affecting Iran’s pistachio orchards, the official added that the nature of pistachio trees’ bearing has also played a big role in low production rates.
Pistachio trees operate on what is called “biennial bearing,” which means that a year in which a tree produces a large amount of nuts will typically be followed by a lower-production year, and vice versa. It is only every other year that the trees are reaching their full potential.
There are some 400,000 hectares of pistachio farms across Iran. According to Deputy Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mojtaba Khosrotaj, Iran supplies more than 50% of the world pistachio market.
Ukraine, the UAE, Italy, Bahrain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Turkey, Canada, Qatar, Switzerland, France, Poland, Sweden, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Thailand, Japan, Romania and Hong Kong are among the main buyers of Iranian pistachio.
MR/IRN83142658
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