The dried fruit market is facing a shortage of walnuts, causing not only a reduction in exports, but a hike in smuggling, Eghtesad-News quoted head of Dried Fruit Exporters Association, Mohammad-Hassan Shamsfard, as saying on Friday. “As the government does not officially import walnut, it is smuggled from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Contraband walnuts account for 20 percent of Iran’s consumption,” said the official.
