Azer News - One kilogram of dates costs 300,000-350,000 rials (about $7.14-8.33) in Iran and sometimes the price is 5-6 times higher than the real price, secretary of the Iran National Dates Association Ali Asghar Mousavi said.

During the harvest season, 1 kilogram of dates is bought at 15-30 rials (about $0.35-0.71) from the farmers, Mousavi added, Trend reports referring to the Young Journalists Club (YJC).

The prices usually increase during Ramadan.

Mousavi added that the price of 1 kilogram of dates is 40,000-50,000 rials (about $0.95-1.19).

Stressing that 900,000-1 million tons of dates were harvested in Iran last year (started on March 21, 2019), Mousavi said that according to the statistics, 500,000-550,000 tons of dates are consumed in Iran. Thus, the shortage of dates is simply a pretext for artificial price in the market.

The Iranian dates are mainly exported to the world markets. According to the world prices, the exporters must return some currency obtained as a result of export, Mousavi said.

The creation of the Dates Fund is one of the ways to control the prices in the market, he said.