Financial Tribune - A total of 1.22 million tons of dates were produced in the last Iranian year that ended on March 19, 2020, of which 200,000-220,000 tons have been stored for supply during the holy month of Ramadan (started April 25), secretary of the National Association of Iranian Dates said.

Noting that the lion’s share of dates is kept in cold storage in Kerman Province, Meqdad Takallouzadeh also told ILNA, “Restrictions on exports have resulted in higher supply and 40-50% decline in prices during the current year’s fasting month compared with last year. Up to 30% of Iran’s date output would be exported to India, Southeast Asia and West Europe every year but the coronavirus crisis has halted exports this year.”

Domestic demand for dates is annually 550,000 tons while per capita date consumption in Iran is around 3 kilograms per year.