Iran has a very high
capacity of producing various foods at premium quality, however, lack of proper
connections to international markets, makes the export of such goods very
difficult.
One of the examples is the Iranian apple for which according to Sadrodin
Niavarani, the Vice-President of Exporters and Importers Association of Iran,
the potentials are very high.
Mr. Niavarin says that the annual production of apple in Iran is nearly 4 million
tones which puts Iran as the 3rd world largest producer of apple.
However, the production chain in the country is lacking parts to make
value-added products out of it. Iran mainly exports the fresh apple fruit and
its biggest market is United Arab of Emirates.
Exporting as fresh bulk fruit in certain periods pushes the prices as low as 12
UAE dirhams, i.e. 2.94 euros per box. This is while the production costs of a
box of apples normally is 25 UAE dirhams, says Mr. Niavarani.
The only solution to avoid exporting fresh fruits at low prices is therefore to
produce other products with an added value. However, processing fresh foods in
Iran is not very much developed and this is one of the fields which needs
serious development.