More investments should be made to create the necessary infrastructure to achieve MFC certification (an international standard) for fruit juice production in the country, said Valliollah Davoodabadi, secretary of Iran’s Fruit and Juice Concentrate Producers’ Union.
Noting that some commercial fruit juice manufacturers have lowered product quality to avoid financial loss, he said despite high fruit production, the average annual per capita consumption of fruit juice is 11 liters in Iran, 29 liters less than per capita consumption in European nations.
“The reason for low consumption is low production of fruit juice concentrate,” the Iranian Agriculture News Agency (IANA) quoted him as saying.
Iran’s production of citrus fruit is high, yet it is a top importer of concentrated citrus juice from Brazil, as industrial oranges are not produced in the country.
“The annual production of concentrated fruit juice is 5,000 tons, as against the demand of 20,000 tons; therefore 15,000 tons is imported,” he said.
The cultivation area of ‘Thomson navel orange’ is increasing, but for ‘Shahsavari orange,’ which is suitable for concentrated orange juice, it is far less.
Additionally, “we don’t produce concentrates of tropical fruits including banana, kiwi, pineapple and blueberry,” he said.
Higher investment in purchasing advanced equipment and machinery for production of fruit juice can help the sector meet international quality and standards.
Fruit juice in compliance with MCF standard bans the use of harmful additives such as sugar, artificial sugar, beta-carotene and thickeners. It may be expensive to produce and has a shorter shelf life, but is far healthy.
Davoodabadi said all fruit juices produced in the country are not approved by the union. Products in compliance with “16748 national standards” are acceptable.
