Mahmoud Bazari also told Mehr News Agency that every year, the ban is imposed to prevent the export of unripe and low-quality kiwis that would give the Iranian fruit a bad reputation.
“Kiwi is one of our high-quality agricultural products, which is exported to 25 countries,” he said.
Latest data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration show a total of 112,000 tons of kiwis worth $82 million were exported from Iran during the first 10 months of the last Iranian year (March 21, 2019-Jan. 20, 2020).
Iraq, Afghanistan and Central Asian countries are traditional customers of Iranian kiwis.
Mazandaran Province, located along the Caspian Sea coastline, is the country’s biggest producer of the fruit.