Financial Tribune- More than 1.15 million tons of seafood were produced in Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2017-18), indicating a 5.5% increase compared with the year before, a deputy agriculture minister said.

“Over 480,000 tons of the sum were produced in fish farms across the country and the rest were caught from the sea,” Hassan Salehi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.

Salehi, who doubles as the head of Iran Fisheries Organization, added that more than 123,000 tons of seafood worth around $500 million were exported during the same period.

In January, Isa Golshahi, the director general of Seafood Quality Improvement, Processing and Market Promotion Department, affiliated to IFO, told Financial Tribune that Iran’s fisheries exports stood at 110,000 tons worth $412 million in the March 2016-17 fiscal year.

Last year’s exports saw an 11.8% and 21.3% rise in weight and value respectively year-on-year.

“Seafood production in Iran annually accounts for only 1% of the country’s agricultural production, but constitutes close to 10% of the average value of agro exports. This shows that the field has high capacities to earn revenues, provided it is adequately supported by the government and the private sector alike,” he said.

According to Salehi, per capita seafood consumption in Iran stood at 11.2 kilograms last year, up from the preceding year’s 10.6 kilograms.

“The Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22) stipulates that seafood production should reach 1.6 million tons per year by the end of the plan,” he added.

The seafood industry has created close to 82,500 jobs in Iran.

Notably, for the first time in 25 years, about 10 kilograms of Iranian farmed caviar worth 600 million rials ($13,000) were exported to the United States last year.

Caspian Sea in northern Iran is the world’s primary and largest habitat of the beluga, the most famous sturgeon species, as well as four other sturgeon species.

According to Salehi, some 220 million ornamental fish were produced in Iran last year, $3 million worth of which were exported.