Iran is the third largest exporter of raisins in the world, according to the Agricultural Jihad Ministry. An official revealed that exports are currently valued at around US$70m every year.
Over the last ten months alone, 88,000 tons of raisins have left the country, grossing US$42.2m in revenue.
Globally, production of raisins exceeds consumption by about 280,000 tons, and intense competition is meaning that export markets are increasingly harder to find. An official from one of the world’s largest raisin producers, the Association of Dried Fruits Producers, explained, “we are obliged to sell raisins to foreign countries but are increasingly faced with competition from the US and Turkey, whose prices are clearly lower than ours.”
“The Americans and the Turks took over our market because […] their raisins are of better quality and above all their products are subsidized by their governments,” he added.
Nouroddin Mowlavi, who controls dried fruits, revealed that raisin growers in Iran receive 10% of the export tax in subsidy from the Economy Council.
