Iran registered $565 million in fishery trade in the financial year 2022-23 (ended March 20), registering an 8.6% rise compared with the year before, according to Abbas Mokhtari, an official with the Agriculture Ministry.
Exports stood at 181,000 tons worth $605 million to register an 8.6% rise in terms of weight and a 9.3% rise in value compared with the year before, IRNA reported.
The export of aquatic feed reached a record high of 39,000 tons to top the list of exports in the fishery sector in terms of tonnage.
The official was earlier quoted as saying that Iraq is the biggest destination for Iranian fish feed followed by Armenia and Uzbekistan.
Shrimp came next with 36,600 tons of exports, 4% higher than in the year before.
The official only noted that exports of shrimp saw a decline in terms of value compared with the fiscal 2021-22, without mentioning the value of shipments.
The southern Bushehr Province is Iran’s main farmed shrimp production region.
Hormozgan, also in southern Iran, is another major producer.
Imports of fishery products stood at 12,482 tons worth $40 million during the same period under review, registering a 4% and 20% rise in weight and value respectively. It stood at 12,012 tons worth $33 million in the fiscal 2021-22.
Tuna fish, fry and eyed egg trout were the main imports and accounted for 72% of the total value of imports.
According to the head of Iran Fisheries Organization, Iran is the second biggest producer of different types of aquatic animals in West Asia.
The export of aquatic feed reached a record high of 39,000 tons to top the list of exports in the fishery sector in terms of tonnage
“Last year [fiscal 2022-23], production was around 1.36 million tons,” Hossein Hosseini was also quoted as saying by IRIB News.
Noting that IFO has placed increasing per capita fish consumption high on its agenda, he said the annual average per capita consumption of fish stands at 13.8 kilogram, which is 8 kilograms below the global norm.
According to the head of Iran’s Seafood Producers and Exporters Union, Ali Akbar Khodaei, Iran’s fisheries industry has created about 260,000 direct jobs.
“About 50% of the jobs in processing firms, conserve industries, research and development departments and education centers are held by women,” he added.
Iran is the biggest producer of beluga caviar in the world, which 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 caviar is the most expensive type of caviar and the Beluga sturgeon is currently considered critically endangered.
Mazandaran and Gilan in the north and Fars in the south west are the biggest caviar producing provinces.
According to Isa Golshahi, another official with Iran Fisheries Organization, the lion’s share of Iran’s caviar is purchased by the European market and Russia is one of the biggest customers of Iran’s sturgeon meat.
Iran’s caviar and sturgeon fish 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 northern Iran, is the world’s primary and largest habitat of the beluga, as well as four other sturgeon species.
However, the deteriorating condition of Caspian Sea has long been threatening the 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 sturgeon fishing for commercial purposes since 2011.
