Mazandaran Exports 100K Tons of Kiwis Since March

EghtesadOnline: A total of 100,000 tons of kiwis have been exported from Iran’s northern Mazandaran Province since the beginning of the current fiscal year (March 21), registering a twofold increase compared with last year’s corresponding period.

News ID: ۷۴۹۳۲۶

30 December 2019

According to Abdollah Mohajer, the head of Mazandaran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, 80,000 tons of the total figure (80%) were exported to India through Chabahar Port in southern Iran.

Mazandaran also exported 65,000 tons of oranges during the same period, Mohajer was quoted as saying by IRNA.

Iraq, Afghanistan and Central Asian Countries are traditional customers of Iranian kiwis, according to Financial Tribune.

The Iranian province accounts for more than 180,000 tons of Iran’s total kiwi output of 220,000 tons; i.e. 81.81%. There are around 8,000 hectares of kiwi farms in the country and Mazandaran accounts for 6,500 hectares.

“With around 12,400 hectares of land under cultivation and more than 362,000 tons of harvest per year, Iran is considered the world’s fourth biggest kiwi producer,” Mohammad Ali Tahmasebi, deputy agriculture minister for horticultural affairs, has been quoted as saying.

The province exported 60,000 tons of kiwis worth about $90 million during the last Iranian year (March 2018-19).

Mazandaran Province is home to 470,000 hectares of agronomical and horticultural farms producing 7 million tons of different agricultural products annually.

The province’s major agro products include rice, kiwi, citrus fruits, flowers, plants, chicken, dairy and fishery products.

“Mazandaran exported 60,000 tons of citrus fruits since the beginning of the current Iranian year,” said the head of Mazandaran Agricultural Jihad Organization last week.

“Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea littoral states, Russia and India are the province’s main export destinations,” Azizollah Shahidifar also told IRNA.

He expects Mazandaran’s total citrus exports to reach 120,000 tons by the end of the current Iranian year (March 19, 2020).

According to the official, the province exported 58,000 tons of citrus fruits last year (March 2018-19).

Shahidifar said 2.7 million tons of citrus fruits are produced in Mazandaran per year, 1.6 million of which are Thomson navel oranges.

Overall, citrus fruit production in Iran will reach about 3.5 million tons by the end of the current year, according to managing director of Orchards Owners Union, Sadra Akbarkhani.

Accordingly, the country would have a citrus production surplus of 1 million tons, Mehr News Agency reported.

Akbarkhani believes proper marketing should be carried out for exporting the surplus or domestic demand should increase.

To that end, he believes infrastructures need to be put in place and transportation and logistics should be taken into consideration, while Iran's commercial attaches should engage in negotiations for selling the surplus crops.

More than 110,000 hectares of land go under citrus cultivation in Mazandaran, which meet nearly 50% of domestic demand. Around 2.50 million tons are harvested there every year.