Iran’s Ministry of Agriculture has announced a ten-year plan to improve walnut orchards for a better quality of walnut. Being among top three walnut producers of the world is not just enough.
Although in 2013, with 0.454 million tons of walnut produced, Iran was the world’s second largest producer after China, but currently Iran holds the third place after United States of America.
By carrying out this plan it is expected that the production of walnuts will increase from 2 tons per hectare to 5 tons per hectare and Iran hopes to get its place back.
“The plan is based on garden nutrition management, pest management and irrigation, supplying machinery, transportation, industry and educating farmers in current research findings as additional plans for improving walnut orchards and the estimated cost of improving walnut orchards is 40 to 50 million IRR per hectare (1240 to 1550 USD).”, explains Mr Rouintan, Director of the office of cold weather products of Ministry of Agriculture.
Iran’s production of walnuts is approximately 230 thousand tons. 153 thousand hectares of land is dedicated to walnut orchards of which 110 thousand hectares are fertile.
The per capita production of walnuts is 2880 grams per person which 6 times that of the global amount. This production exceeds national usage and therefore Iran has no need for importing walnuts.
Iran exports 5000 tons of walnuts annually which is valued at nearly $35m. Iran’s walnut is exported to 30 countries chief among them are Iraq, Turkey, England and Germany. Each kilogram of Iranian walnut contains 640 grams of edible oil.
Foreign walnuts have a number of advantages to domestic ones which are higher yields, faster fruitfulness and resistance to cold.
30 provinces in Iran produce walnuts, the best of which are Kerman, Kermanshah, Hamadan, Lorestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Khorasan Razavi, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Eastern and Western Azerbaijan and Markazi.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture of Iran, FAOSTAT
