More than 389,000 tons of fresh dates, valued at over $345 million, were exported from the country between March 21, 2023, and March 19, 2024, according to the spokesman of the International Relations and Trade Development Committee of Iran’s House of Industry, Mining and Trade Ruhollah Latifi.

He added that the exports of dates in the previous Iranian calendar year registered a 4.0 and a 6.7 percent hike in weight and value respectively, compared to the preceding year.

In this period, India was the first destination of Iran’s exported dates, importing more than 90,000 tons of dates, valued at over $84 million, followed by Pakistan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, China, Iraq, and Russia, he said. 

He pointed out that Mazafati dates were the most popular dates imported by these countries among Iranian date species, IRNA reported.

Austria, Jordan, Argentina, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Spain, Australia, South Africa, Albania, Germany, the UAE, and Indonesia were the other countries that imported dates from Iran in this timespan, Latifi added.

Earlier, Mohsen Rashid, the chairman of the Iranian National Date Association, said Iran is the third-largest producer of fresh dates in the world.

AMK/TT