The Statistical Center of Iran's latest report shows beef accounted for 17,200 tons or 55.7% of the overall production, indicating a year-on-year increase of 29%.
Moreover, 11,000 tons of lamb (up 17% YOY), 2,100 tons of goat meat (up 17% YOY) and some 552 tons of meat from other types of livestock were produced during the one-month period, accounting for 35.7%, 6.8% and 1.8% of the total output respectively, SCI reported on its website.
The output witnessed a 41% month-on-month growth.
Iranians consume around 920,000 tons of red meat per year, 90% of which are supplied domestically.
The top 10 red meat producing provinces in Iran are Khorasan Razavi, Fars, East Azarbaijan, Mazandaran, West Azarbaijan, Isfahan, Khuzestan, Tehran, Ardabil and Hamedan.
Imports are made from the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as Brazil and Australia.
Former deputy agriculture minister, Hassan Rokni, told Financial Tribune in an interview that Iran's red meat market is worth 248.793 trillion rials ($1.38 billion).
According to Karamali Qandali, the head of Nomadic Affairs Organization, Iranian nomads supply 25% of the country's demand for red meat.
Red meat production by nomads in Iran is estimated to increase by 15-20% in the current Iranian year (March 2020-21), compared with last year amid high precipitation leading to the bountiful growth of fodder in the meadows, the official said recently.
“At present, nomads own more than 9.5 million head of livestock and produce 190,000 tons of red meat per year, which meet 25% of domestic demand,” he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
There are 213,000 nomadic households in Iran, accounting for 1.2 million people.
Consumption of red meat has seen a 60% decline due to the outbreak of coronavirus and shutdown of restaurants and ceremony halls, said the head of Iran’s Livestock Exporters National Assembly lately.
According to Mansour Pourian, restaurants, ceremony halls and hotels have the highest shares in red meat consumption in Iran, especially during the current Iranian New Year holidays (March 20-April 5).
These businesses are reopening these days, yet the comeback of the virus in a second wave is threatening their closure again.
Cattle farms in Iran supplied a total of 380,000 head of heavy livestock and some 2 million tons of milk to the market last winter (Dec. 22, 2019-March 19), according to SCI.
There were a total of 4.5 million head of heavy livestock in Iran’s cattle farms in winter. A total of 537,000 calves were born in these farms over the same period, according to SCI.
A total of 15.5 million tons of livestock products were produced in Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), according to deputy agriculture minister for livestock affaires.
“Some 11 million tons of the total sum pertained to milk, part of which was exported. Close to 2.6 million tons of poultry meat, 1.02 million tons of eggs and more than 860,000 tons of red meat were produced during the period,” Morteza Rezaei was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
The average Producer Price Index for industrial-scale livestock farms in the four-quarter period ending March 19 increased by 36.16% compared with the preceding year's corresponding period.
PPI, using 2011 as the base year, stood at 500.17 in the fourth quarter of last Iranian year, indicating a 1.3% decrease compared with the preceding quarter.
North Khorasan posted the sharpest deflation with 15.08% compared with the preceding quarter while Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province posted the highest quarter-on-quarter producer inflation with 6.14%, SCI reported.
The Q4 index registered an increase of 3.96% compared with the same quarter of the year before.
East Azarbaijan posted the sharpest year-on-year producer deflation of 7.85% while Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad Province registered the highest year-on-year producer inflation with 21.47% in Q1.