Page 49 - IRANRptAug21

Iran’s annual saffron exports hit 324,000 tonnes
Value of Iran’s agricultural exports ‘expanded 8% y/y in first 10 months of current Iranian year’
often in a wrong way.” Such mixing drastically undermines the effectiveness of the poultry industry, he pointed out, while upping production costs since the feed conversion ratio in the poultry industry jumps from 1.6 when using the finished feed to 2.2 on in-house feed.
Feed mills in Iran left without feedstuff have to purchase it on the black market, the size of which has expanded significantly in Iran in 2021, according to Mousavi’s reported comments. “Selling a truck of soybeans to poultry farmers would cost 200 million tomans ($47,000),” Mousavi was also reported as stating.
The problems facing feed producers have caused broiler meat shortages in some parts of the country. As explained by Mousavi, prior to the pandemic, Iran had a 20% surplus of broiler meat. Now people have to wait hours in long queues to purchase broilers.
According to Iran’s National Poultry Farmers Union, the number of chicks in the country at the end of 2020 was around 95mn, while it is thought at least 110mn are needed to meet domestic demand fully.
Iranian exports of the prized spice saffron, sometimes referred to as "red gold", reached 324,589 tonnes in the 2020/2021 Persian calendar year (ended March 20), with shipments sent to 60 countries, according to Iranian Customs data.
Exports remained strong in Asia and southern Europe while regional export hubs such as Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were the biggest markets. Iranian saffron is often repackaged in foreign markets before being sold on to final destinations in order to avoid sanctions.
Most of Iran's saffron went to Hong Kong (74,578 kilograms worth $46.626mn). Next biggest buyers were the UAE (59,791 kg, $33.942mn), Spain (49,025 kg, $26.44mn), China (40,139 kg, $22.504mn) and Afghanistan (33,781 kg, $19.168mn).
Those five countries accounted for 79% of the saffron exports.
The value of Iran’s agricultural product exports expanded by 8.4% y/y to $4.9bn during the first 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2020 – January 19, 2021), the Tehran Times quoted the an official of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) as saying on February 3.
Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi, the IRICA deputy head for technical and customs affairs, said $2.1bn of the value was achieved by the 10 major agricultural products of Iran, with pistachios the lead item in terms of value. Pistachios with fresh or dried skin earned $920mn on the export market. Fresh or dried pistachio kernels brought in $170mn.
In the previous Iranian year, pistachios, apples, tomatoes, pistachio kernels and watermelons made up Iran’s top five exported agricultural items.
9.1.9 Retail sector news
‘Iranian Amazon’ Digikala says it is Middle East e-commerce champion with five million product varieties
Iran’s Digikala has laid claim to the title of “prevailing e-commerce business in the Middle East”, with the company—sometimes known as the “Iranian Amazon”—saying it has moved up to offering more than five million product varieties, while boasting more than 150,000 marketplace sellers and 40mn active monthly users.
In an update on business progress, Digikala said: “Founded in 2006 with inadequate funds, Digikala is the largest e-commerce business in Iran as of today as it had a substantial share of the country's e-commerce industry in
49 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com