Tehran Province has the largest share of area under greenhouse cultivation in Iran.
According to Karim Zolfaqari, the head of Tehran Agricultural Jihad Organization, Tehran has 3,500 hectares from a total of 13,000 hectares of land under greenhouse cultivation in Iran.
“Tehran Province has around 187,000 hectares of farmland, 3,500 hectares of which are greenhouse areas yielding more than 600,000 tons of different kinds of crops every year,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official also noted that Tehran accounts for half of the country’s cut flower production.
Pishva, Varamin and Pakdasht counties are top producers of greenhouse crops in Tehran.
This is while the CEO of Agricultural Parks Company, affiliated to the Agriculture Ministry, Ali Ashraf Mansouri, said in January Iran's greenhouse area has expanded to 15,000 hectares.
According to the official, 8,500 hectares were under greenhouse cultivation in Iran in 2013.
Mansouri said that in the last Iranian year (March 2017-18), over 820,000 tons of greenhouse products worth $300 million were exported from Iran, adding that close to 2.6 million tons of different kinds of vegetables and 1.6 billion flowers and ornamental plants were cultivated in greenhouses nationwide last year.
Valiollah Bani-Ameri, the head of Greenhouse Expansion Project undertaken by the Agriculture Ministry, said the ministry expects to produce 21 million tons of agricultural products via greenhouses annually.
Iran ranks second globally in terms of expansion of greenhouse area after Mexico and is home to around 0.3% of the world’s greenhouses.