Iran registered a $54 million surplus in the trade of fisheries and aquaculture during the first two months of the current Iranian year (March 21-May 21).
According to statistics released by the Iran Fisheries Organization, a total of 31,000 tons of fisheries and aquaculture products worth $58 million were exported from Iran during the period, registering a 23% and 29% rise in terms of weight and value respectively compared with the same period of last year.
Different kinds of fish accounted for 70% of the total exports, Fars News Agency reported, including 3,719 tons of cutlassfish worth $7.31 million, 6,069 tons of common carp worth $4.84 million and 1,484 tons of trout worth $4.28 million.
Shrimp exports stood at 5,170 tons worth $19.64 million to register a 113% rise in tonnage.
The exports also included 7,832 tons of aquatic feed worth $6.65 million.
A total of 973 tons of fisheries and aquaculture products worth $3.73 million were imported during the same period to register a 174% and 56% year-on-year rise in weight and value respectively.
The highest share of imports belonged to Scombridae with 449 tons worth $1 million, accounting for 46% of total imports. Different kinds of fish accounted for 39% of the total.
The highest share of fish imports belonged to tilapia with 362 tons worth $1.28 million.
The above-mentioned figures indicate that Iran registered a trade surplus of $54 million in fisheries and aquaculture.
FY 2022-23 in Review
Iran registered $565 million in trade of fishery products in the fiscal 2022-23 (ended March 20), indicating 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.
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 decline in terms of value compared with fiscal 2021-22, without mentioning the value of shipments.
The southern Bushehr Province is Iran’s main farmed shrimp production region.
Hormozgan, also in the south of the country, is another major producer.
Imports of fishery products stood at 12,482 tons worth $40 million during the same period under review, registering 4% and 20% rises in weight and value respectively.
The imports stood at 12,012 tons worth $33 million in fiscal 2021-22.
Tuna fish, fry and eyed egg trout were the main imports accounting 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.
“Last year [fiscal 2022-23], we had around 1.36 million tons of production,” he was quoted by IRIB News as saying.
Noting that the IFO has increasing the per capita consumption of fish in Iran high on its agenda, Hossein Hosseini said: “Average annual per capita consumption of fish stands at 13.8 kilogram, which is 8 kilograms below the global norm.”
Advantages of Caviar Market
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.
“Some 50% of the jobs in processing firms, conserve industries, research and development departments and education centers are held by women,” he said.
Iran is the biggest producer of beluga caviar in the world. Beluga caviar is caviar consisting 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. The Beluga sturgeon is currently considered to be critically endangered.
Mazandaran and Gilan in the north of the country 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 as Russia is one of the biggest customers of Iran’s sturgeon meat.
Iran’s caviar and sturgeon fishes 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.
