Governor of Anar County of Kerman province Ali Zahroudi said on Wednesday that despite temperature fluctuations more than 17,000 tons of pistachios were harvested from 20,000 hectare gardens of pistachio in the area.
He said that the celebrating pistachio harvest festival is holding today with the participation of some domestic and foreign guests.
Zahroudi highlighted that Anar County is among the most productive points for pistachios.
Iran and the US have been the biggest producers of pistachios in the world with the annual pistachio exports of 160,000 tons and 200,000 tons respectively.
Italy, Greece, Afghanistan, Syria and Turkey are also among the main players in the world pistachio market but none of them can compete with Iran.
Last Tuesday, Iranian Deputy Agriculture Minister Abdolmehdi Bakhshandeh announced that his country’s agri-food producers exported more than $2 billion in the first five months of the current local calendar year (March 21- September 22), with dairy products making up the biggest share of the country’s trade in this sector.
Pistachio, a main Iranian export item, came third in the list in terms of volume of shipments, as more than 21,000 tons of the nut were exported between March and September, generating over nearly $178 million in revenues.
Pistachio prices surged over the past years mainly because of poor harvests in Kerman, an arid region where nearly 300,000 tons of the nibble is produced each year.