Karamali Qandali added that nomadic communities also produce 9.5 million head of livestock per year, Mehr News Agency reported.
“Nomads have a 35% share in the country’s handicraft production,” he said.
The government allocated 2.07 trillion rials ($34.5 million) from the National Development Fund of Iran to extend loans to nomads last year (March 2017-18), Financial Tribune reported.
“Each year, 1% of the resources of NDFI is allotted to meat production,” Qandali said.
NDFI, Iran’s national sovereign wealth fund, was established in 2011 to save resources when the government earns abundant revenues, especially from oil and gas sales, to use them in line with plans and needs when revenues drop, especially at times of oil price crash.
Iran’s total red meat production stands at 830,000 tons annually, meeting 90% of domestic demand, Deputy Agriculture Minister Hassan Rokni told Financial Tribune in an interview last year.
According to Rokni, Iran’s per capita red meat consumption stood at 11.47 kilograms per person in March 2016-17 fiscal year, reaching a total of 917,000 tons. This is while the country’s per capita red meat production is less than 10.5 kilograms.
The top 10 red meat producing provinces in Iran are Khorasan Razavi, Fars, East Azarbaijan, Mazandaran, West Azarbaijan, Isfahan, Khuzestan, Tehran, Ardabil and Hamedan.
Iran imported 94,500 tons of red meat worth $385 million in the fiscal 2016-17. Figures show imports have been on a general decline since the fiscal 2011-12.