Despite international sanctions that have limited the country’s ability to export its seafood products, Iran managed to top USD 528 million (EUR 477.4 million) in value from its seafood exports in its last fiscal year.
Iran exported 143,970 tons of seafood in the past Iranian year, which ended March 2019, according to the Iran Fisheries Organization’s Seafood Quality Improvement, Processing and Market Promotion Department, per Iran’s Financial Tribune. That total included 43,000 metric tons (MT) of cutlassfish and squid, as well as 11,000 MT of trout.
The country has also increased its harvest of anchovy- and sardine-like species in the waters of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Those fish are ground into powdered fishmeal, which is then exported to Sri Lanka, Oman, Thailand, and Malaysia, according to the department.
Overall, Iran’s exports to Southeast Asia – especially Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand – rose significantly in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, according to Iran Fisheries Production and Trading Union Secretary General Ali Akbar Khodaei. Exports to South Korea also rose, and Iran shipped seafood to 44 countries in total, the department said, Kodaei said, as reported by the Iran Daily.
In terms of aquaculture, Iran now ranks as the second-largest producer in the Middle East and 17th-largest in the world, with 1.1 million MT of total production, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. Iran is the top rainbow trout producer in the world and was also a world leader in sturgeon production, Iranian Head of Fisheries Nabiollah Khanmirzayee told IRNA. Additionally, Iran achieved 50,000 MT of shrimp production through aquaculture last year.
Iran’s government is working to increase domestic seafood consumption, which averaged 1.5 kilograms per capita last year, Khanmirzayee said.
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