Bushehr Exports Hit $6.3b in Three Quarters

EghtesadOnline: A total of 19.2 million tons of goods worth $6.3 billion were exported from the southwestern Bushehr Province during the first three quarters of the current Iranian year (March 21-Dec. 21), around $455 million of which were gas condensates.

News ID: ۷۸۵۲۱۹

07 January 2020

According to Hossein Hosseini, the head of Bushehr Industries, Mining and Trade Organization, petrochemicals such as methanol, glycol, ethylene and sulfur, as well as cement, clinker, tomatoes, dates, farmed shrimps and other seafood were the main exported goods, IRNA reported.

China, Qatar, Turkey, South Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan were the main export destinations, Financial Tribune reported.

The official noted that during the nine months, Bushehr’s exports to Qatar grew 48% year-on-year to stand at $115 million.

“Agricultural products, cement, clinker, farmed shrimps and steel ingots constituted the bulk of exports to the neighboring country,” he said.

Bushehr Province has the port city of Bushehr as its capital. The city lies in a vast plain running along the coastal region on the Persian Gulf coast of southwestern Iran.

Bushehr is one of the important Persian Gulf ports, which has an international airport and highways connecting the city to Ahvaz to the northwest and Shiraz to the northeast. A secondary coastal road links Bushehr to Bandar Abbas to the southeast.

Shrimp Production Hub

Bushehr is Iran’s shrimp production hub, accounting for about 60% of the country’s total output.

Earlier this month, Qasem Qaedi, an official with Bushehr Governorate, said 14,000 tons of farmed shrimps worth $70 million have been exported from Bushehr since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2019).

A total of 21,767 tons of shrimps have been produced in Bushehr Province’s aquatic farms since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March 21), which shows a 5.36% decrease compared with the similar period of last year.

This year’s harvest season for farmed shrimps has ended.

“The reasons for this decline in production are the white spot disease that infected some of our aquatic farms and the rise in shrimp farming input costs, in addition to the fact that the infrastructure that were to be built to help increase production were not completed during the production season,” Soghra Ashraf, the deputy head of Bushehr Fisheries Organization, was quoted as saying by IRNA.

The official noted that about 90% of the shrimps produced in the province are exported to China, Russia and the littoral states of Persian Gulf.

Around 23,200 tons of farmed shrimps were produced in Bushehr Province during the last Iranian year (March 2018-19).

According to Director General of Bushehr’s Fisheries Organization Abbas Ali Zendehboudi, some 90% of the output are exported.

Apart from farmed shrimps, Bushehr produces eels, squid and cutlass fish that are mainly exported to China, Vietnam, Thailand, the UAE, Oman, Russia and Malaysia.

Farmed shrimps account for 55% of the shrimps produced globally. Most shrimp farms are in China, followed by Thailand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Brazil, Ecuador and Bangladesh, and they have generated substantial income in these developing countries.