Iran Agrifood Exports Top $2.13bn in 5 Months: Ministry

Date: 23 September 2020 - 21:40

News ID: ۸۳۱۴۰

TEHRAN (Dispatches) - Spokesman of Iran’s agriculture ministry Alimorad Sarafrazi has said that the countrys’ exports of agrifood amounted to $2.13 billion in the five-month period ending late August.
Sarafrazi said that total agrifood exports in the first five months of the current calendar year until August 21 had amounted to nearly three million metric tons in volume terms.
"Products from the agriculture and food sector were exported to various countries, including to the neighbors as well as (to) Germany over the first five months of the current year,” said Sarafrazi in remarks covered by the official IRNA agency.
Iran’s agriculture sector grew by nearly 10 percent in the year ending March 2020, according to official figures provided by the government.
Agrifood exports have become a major source of earning hard currency for the government at a time of decreased oil exports. More support for the sector have also been critical in government’s efforts to diversify the economy away from crude revenues.
IRNA said earlier this week that Iranian farming companies have been expanding into international markets by seeking to lease lands in countries like Brazil.
It said Iran’s diplomatic mission in Brazil have been negotiating with local officials in Mato Grosso state of the South American country to prepare the ground for Iran’s farming activity in the region.
Authorities insist that agriculture output in Iran have remained stable over the past months despite the spread of the coronavirtus in Iran.
The government also announced on Tuesday that it would nearly double the guaranteed price for domestic wheat purchase for the next harvesting season as it seeks to encourage more cultivation of the strategic crop across the country.