BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jun. 5
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The value of Iran’s herbal plants exports is estimated to reach $5 billion after 4 years (from March 21, 2025 through March 20, 2026), the manager of the plan on herbal plants of Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of Iran, Hossein Zeynali told ILNA, Trend reports.
The manager stressed that it will not be so difficult to achieve the export of the herbal plants at this value by the implementation of the planned programs.
Zeynali added that given the water shortages, the Ministry of Agriculture of Jihad of Iran is focusing on the planting of herbal plants.
"Furthermore, a 4-percent loan is to be provided for the cultivation of herbal plants in Iran. These loans will increase interest in the planting, cultivation and processing of herbal plants," he said.
According to Zeynali, the value of Iran's herbal plants exports amounted to $550 million over the last Iranian year (from March 20, 2020 through March 20, 2021). This is an increase of 60-70 percent, compared to the preceding Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 through March 19, 2020).
The manager noted that about 400,000 tons of medicinal plants were cultivated in Iran within the last Iranian year.
"At present, herbal plants are planted 265,000 hectares of land in Iran. These medicinal plants are mainly Damascus rose, saffron, coriander, black cumin (Nigella sativa), borage plant and others," he said.
As reported, the loans worth 10 trillion rials (about $238 million) will be issued in Iran in order to increase the production of herbal plants in the current Iranian year (from March 21, 2021 through 20 March 2022). Depending on the type of herbal plants, loans worth between 100 million-2 billion rials (about $2,380-$47,600) per hectare are to be issued. These loans will be issued at 4 percent.
