Jun 8, 2004, 7:04 PM

17% of World’s Palm Groves In Iran

TEHRAN June 8 (MNA) -– Of the overall 1.18 million dates produced within the country, 180,000 tons is consumed domestically and the remainder is exported.

Iran enjoying 183,000 hectares of land area under palm cultivation, accounts for 16.6 percent of the total palm groves worldwide said Hossein Pezhman an official with the Institute for Research on Tropical Fruits in an interview with Mehr News Agency.

As one of the two major date producers in the world Pezhman went on to say that date exports have decreased in first two months of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2004- March 19, 2005) since the demand for dates has decreased globally.

He said that according to the figures released by the Farming and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the 6.1 tons of dates produced worldwide in year 2002 less than 10 percent was exported.

Accordingly, Iranian date exports in 2001 were about 120,000 tons declining to 113,000 tons in 2002.

HK/DWN/IS
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MNA