The CEO of Iran’s Cotton Fund Company, Mohammad Hosein Kaviani, says the area under cotton cultivation has decreased from 90,000 hectares last Iranian year (ended March 20) to 55,000 hectares this year amid reduced profitability of the sector and lack of support by the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad. “Considering the current cultivation capacity, 35,000 tons of cotton is estimated to be produced domestically by yearend accounting for 35% of the domestic demand; the rest has to be supplied through imports,” he noted. This is while according to Kaviani, 4 decades ago, domestically produced cotton not only met the country’s demand, but also 100,000 tons were exported from Golestan Province alone to 21 countries.
