Dairy Exports Targeted to Reach $1b

EghtesadOnline: Iran is targeting dairy exports worth $1 billion in the current fiscal year (March 2017-18), Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati said.

News ID: ۷۷۸۱۷۲

06 August 2017

“In the past, we used to import dairy products, chicken and wheat but today, not only do we meet the domestic demand but we’ve also turned into an exporter of these products,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.

According to Kaveh Zargaran, chairman of Agriculture Commission of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, dairy exports earned $773 million in the last fiscal year to March 2017.

Among the exported products, yogurt topped the list with $218 million, followed by cheese with $187 million, infant formula with $129 million and cream and ice cream with $120 million. In fact, dairy products had the biggest share in Iran’s food exports last year, Financial Tribune reported.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Hassan Rokni said some 300,000 tons of dairy products were exported from Iran in the first three months of the current fiscal year (March 21-June 21), registering a 70% increase compared with the corresponding period of last year.

“Our main export destinations over the period were Russia and some Eurasian and European countries,” he has been quoted as saying.

Rokni has put the tonnage of last year’s exports at close to 850,000 tons.