A total of 133,700 tons of nuts and dried fruits worth $835 million were exported from Iran during the first eight months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Nov. 20), registering a 99% and 71% growth in weight and value respectively, according to the spokesperson of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
“Pistachios topped the list of exports and accounted for around 121,300 tons of the total sum worth $798 million. Unshelled and shelled pistachios accounted for 110,000 tons and 10,800 tons respectively,” Rouhollah Latifi was also quoted as saying by the news portal of IRIB News.
China, Germany, Iraq and Russia are the main buyers of Iranian pistachio.
The southeastern Kerman Province is Iran’s pistachio production hub.
According to IRICA’s technical affairs deputy, Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi, the export of unshelled pistachio was worth $675 million during the eight-month period, showing an 82% rise in value compared with the corresponding period of last year.
The export of shelled pistachio earned $118 million, indicating a 37% YOY rise.
Pistachio exports accounted for more than one-fifth of Iran’s total agricultural exports during the period under review.
A total of 5.45 million tons of agricultural products worth $3.84 billion were exported from Iran during March 20-Nov. 20, showing a 27% and 13% growth in weight and value respectively compared with the similar period of last year.
As a result, agro products accounted for 7.26% and 18.87% of the volume and value of Iran’s overall exports respectively during the period.
Apart from pistachio, tomato and tomato paste, watermelon and apple were the main agricultural products exported from Iran.
Iran exported 7.1 million tons of agricultural and food products worth $5.82 billion in the last fiscal year that ended on March 19, 2020, to register a 2.34% rise in tonnage and an 8.93% decline in value compared to the year before, the Agriculture Ministry reported.
In-shell pistachio (fresh and dried) topped the list of exports in terms of value, as the country exported $724.2 million worth of the crop during the period.
The IRICA spokesman added that 190 tons of almonds, 123 tons of hazelnuts, 530 tons of walnuts and 408 tons of peanuts were also exported during the same period.
Latifi noted that exports of nuts and dried fruits stood at 67,100 tons worth $486 million in the last Iranian year’s corresponding period.
Domestic demand for nuts and dried fruits rises every year on the occasion of Yalda night (Dec. 20, 2020), the Iranian winter solstice celebration that has been popular since ancient times.
Other must-have foods used in Yalda celebration include watermelon, pomegranate, dried fruits and nuts.
US-Iran Pistachio y Rivalry
American farmers have deposed Iran as the king of the global pistachio industry, benefiting from US policies hostile to Tehran, climate change and egregious failures of economic and water management that have sucked the Islamic Republic’s lakes and aquifers dry.
The country is unlikely ever to recover its pistachio crown, spawning a race among other producers to grow the nut and fill the gap created by its defeat, Bloomberg reported in February.
Persia enjoyed a virtual monopoly on cultivating the hardy yet demanding pistachio tree for at least 1,000 years. Giving pistachio farmers more access to land and water was a core offer of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The country devoted ever more land to growing the fatty green nut and replaced the ancient Qanat system of subsoil canals that fed the crop with higher-volume water pumps. Harvests boomed, even through the chaos of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Yet the US, which started to produce pistachios only in 1976, has now overtaken Iran as the world’s leading producer. Catching up took a while, and picking the one moment of victory is hard, as pistachio harvests can be volatile, alternating between fat and lean years.
However, from 2004 to 2009, the Islamic Republic still accounted for 40% of global production on average, followed by the US at 33%. By 2014-19, those positions were reversed: 47% of the global total came from the US and 27% from Iran. A catastrophic 2018-19 season briefly pulled Iran’s share as low as 7%, the report said.
