Walnut Import Banned

The Ministry of Agriculture has banned the import of walnut because of bumper production of the crop in excess of domestic demand, an official with the ministry said. Ramezan Rouyintan added that “what you see in the market under the name of Chinese walnut has been smuggled”. Iran’s per capita production of walnut stands at 2,880 grams, six times more than that of global average, according to the official.  “Some 230,000 tons of walnut are produced in Iran every year from 153,000 hectares designated to its cultivation. Walnut is grown over 1.2 million hectares of land throughout the world, from which close to 3.4 million tons are harvested every year,” Mehr News Agency quoted Rouyintan as saying. Iran is the third largest producer of walnut after China and the US. The country also exports to 30 countries, mainly Iraq, Turkey, the UK and Germany.  “We export around 5,000 tons of walnut worth $35 million annually,” Rouyintan said.  Kerman, Kermanshah, Hamedan, Lorestan, Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad and Khorasan Razavi are the main walnut-producing provinces of Iran.