BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 12. Iran is the world’s top country for growing different kinds of dates, with five varieties cultivated across six provinces, said Mohsen Rashid Farrokhi, chairman of the National Date Association of Iran, Trend reports.
He also said that Iran is the third-largest producer of dates in the world, after Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with a harvest of 1.3 million tons this year.
Farrokhi added that Iran exported over 200,000 tons of dates, valued at $270 million, to various markets in Central Asia, CIS, and Europe during the first 10 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2023 to January 20, 2024).
The chairman further stated that Iran could boost its date exports to $600-$700 million annually in the next one or two years, if the right decisions are made.
He also estimated that Iran’s date exports could reach $1 billion per year, if the global market price of dates is $1.2 per kg.
Overall, Iran exported around 6.8 million tons of agricultural and food products worth $4.87 billion in 10 months. This is an increase of 22 percent in value and 8.4 percent in volume compared to the same period last year.
On average, Iran cultivates 130 million tons of agricultural products annually.
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