MNA – An official at Ministry of Agriculture said Iran produces over 830 thousand tons of red meat every year.

Head of the Agriculture Ministry’s Animal Breeding Center Mohammad Reza Mollasalehi, while pointing to annual production of 830 thousand tons of red meat in the country, said 53% of the overall amount pertained beef while 47% belonged to lamb and goat meat.

The official noted that volume of buffalo and camel meat production in Iran was inconsiderable stating “the large portion of meat production comes from indigenous and industrial cattle.”

“currently, nearly 90% of the country’s demand for red meat is being supplied domestically with only 10 percent of the product coming from overseas,” continued the official adding “2.5 million tons of raw milk is produced annually in the country, of which 94 per cent is for cattle.”

Mollasalehi said cow population in the country was estimated at eight million noting that main priority was to produce milk with meat production landing second.

Referring to the estimation of producing 11.5 million tons of raw milk in the country within the Sixth Development Plan, he said “to this end, dairy cow units and raising per capita of milk production seem to be highly necessary.”

Mohammad Reza Mollasalehi also underscored that the overall figure for annual red meat production needs to climb from the current 830 thousand to one million tons.