A total of 1.19 million tons of seafood were produced in Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2021-22), registering a 6.27% decline compared with the year before, according to data released by Iran Fisheries Organization.
Of the total sum, 650,748 tons were harvested from sea and 538,367 tons were farmed to register a respective decline of 9% and 3%.
Farmed sturgeon meat reached 3,927 tons, indicating a 12% rise while 9.5 tons were caught from the Caspian Sea, showing a 37% decline.
A total of 211,374 tons of warm freshwater fish and 181,905 tons of cold freshwater fish were produced in aquaculture farms, both registering a 4% decrease.
A total of 6,336 tons of shrimp were harvested from the southern waters and 57,799 tons were farmed in salty waters during the period, showing a 48% fall in the former and an 18% growth in the latter.
Cage fish farming stood at 10,605 tons, registering a 16% decrease.
Boney fish harvest in the three provinces along the shores of the Caspian Sea stood at 7,822, showing a 29% fall compared with 11,061 tons in the year before.
Three main types of boney fish are harvested in the north, namely mullet, Caspian Kutum and common carp.
The province of Mazandaran has the biggest share from the total annual fish yield followed by Gilan and Golestan.
Bad weather conditions, colder-than-usual water temperatures, stormy sea and fewer trips taken by fishermen were cited as the main reasons for the decline in boney fish harvest last year.
Black Sea sprat experienced a 6% growth to stand at 21,295 tons.
No lanternfish were harvested last year while 17,588 tons were caught in the year before.
Farmed tilapia production stood at 778 tons, 10% more than in the previous year.
Exports Earn $554m
A total of 166,000 tons of seafood worth $554 million were exported from Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2021-22), registering a 19% and 14% rise in tonnage and value respectively compared with the year before, according to the head of Iran Fisheries Organization.
“About 700,000 tons of seafood were harvested from the sea and more than 610,000 tons were farmed in aquaculture farms across the country,” Hossein Hosseini was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official told IRNA that around 291 million ornamental fish are produced in Iran with an annual turnover of 60 trillion rials ($187 million).
According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, the volume of shrimp exports from Iran in 2021-22 marked a 140% rise compared with the 10-year average (15,300 tons), and a 67% increase compared with the five-year average (21,750 tons), Seairan.com reported.
The Fishery Production and Trade Union of Iran wrote on its website that 95% of last year’s shrimp exports were farmed.
Iran’s main export destinations during the period under review were China with 14,200 tons, the UAE with 11,200 tons and the Russian Federation with 4,150 tons. Other traditional customers of Iranian shrimp are Turkey, Iraq, Spain and France.
Iran is a major seafood producer in the region with trout, caviar and shrimp being its main exported products. The southern Bushehr Province is Iran’s farmed shrimp production hub.
Hormozgan, also in southern Iran, is another major producer.
Iran’s fishery sector has created over 233,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Caviar Exports Rise 65% to 5.7 Tons
A total of around 5.77 tons of caviar were exported from Iran to 33 countries in the last Iranian year (March 2021-22), registering a 65% increase compared with the year before, an official with Iran Fisheries Organization said, citing figures released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
“More than 3.77 tons of the total sum were shipped from the country’s customs terminals and the remaining 2 tons were exported as suitcase trade,” Nasser Karamirad was also quoted as saying by ISNA.
Each kilogram of exported caviar is priced between €1,000 and €1,300, the official said, adding that when reaching the end consumers, prices increase to €3,000 to €4,000.
Iran is the biggest producer of beluga caviar in the world, he added.
Beluga caviar consists of the roe (or eggs) of the beluga sturgeon Huso huso. The fish is found primarily in the Caspian Sea. It can also be found in the Black Sea basin and occasionally in the Adriatic Sea.
Beluga is the most expensive type of caviar.
The Beluga sturgeon is currently considered critically endangered.
Mazandaran and Gilan in the north of the country and Fars in the south west topped the list of caviar producing provinces.
Karamirad said presently, there are 177 active beluga sturgeon farms in 22 out of 31 provinces of Iran, 147 of which are producing at industrial scales with official permits and 30 are small and family-run farms.
Any export of caviar, he added, requires legal permits issued by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention).
As per the convention, caviar exports for which permits have not been obtained will be considered contraband and cargo owners will be subject to heavy fines.
CITES is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975.
Its aim is to ensure that international trade of specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild, and it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 35,000 species of animals and plants.
According to Isa Golshahi, another official with Iran Fisheries Organization, the lion’s share of Iran’s caviar is purchased by the European market while Russia is one of the biggest customers of Iran’s sturgeon meat.
Iran’s caviar and sturgeon are also exported to Persian Gulf littoral states, including the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, as well as Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Malaysia, China and Japan.
Caspian Sea, in the north of Iran, is the world’s primary and largest habitat of the beluga, the most famous sturgeon species, as well as four other sturgeon species.
However, the deteriorating condition of Caspian Sea has long been threatening this fish with extinction. The declining sturgeon population and the ban on their fishing have caused a downtrend in Iran’s caviar exports.
Studies show that most of the world’s sturgeon spawn in the rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea. Iran has some of the harshest laws on poaching the fish while authorities have sought to persuade other countries in the region to implement similar regulations to protect the fish.
The long, prehistoric fish, whose glittery, bead-like eggs make the choicest caviar, had been driven nearly to extinction by overfishing.
Now, dozens of Iranian producers are raising sturgeons legally on fish farms.
The Caspian littoral states have banned fishing sturgeons for commercial purposes since 2011.
