Cold Damages Northern Orchards

A severe drop in temperature has cost 198 billion rials (more than $53 million) to orchard-owners in Golestan, Mehr News Agency quoted head of the northern Iranian province’s Agricultural Jihad Organization, Mokhtar Mohajer as saying.

Orchards in Mazandaran Province, also in the north, have been damaged as well by the bitter cold and frosty weather which set in a few days ago, but the exact cost has yet to be evaluated.

Prior to the sudden and early drop in temperature a total of 4.5 million tons of citrus fruit were expected to be produced across Iran this year, according to Mohammad Reza Shabani, head of Mazandaran Province Orchard Owner’s Union.