Iran targets more than 40,000 tonnes of olive exports as Tarom stays tied to raw sales

Iran plans to more than double its olive exports, lifting shipments from the current 20,000 tonnes a year to more than 40,000 tonnes, the head of Iran's National Olive Council said in remarks reported by IRNA. The council's head tied the target to planning already carried out and to facilitation measures by the government, and placed the increase over the coming years rather than in a single season.

The target lands on a sector whose main production base still sells a large share of its crop unprocessed. Tarom county in Zanjan province, the country's leading olive district, remains caught between export opportunity and raw-product selling, according to a report by Young Journalists Club drawing on an interview conducted by Tasnim.

National target: from 20,000 to 40,000 tonnes

The figure cited by IRNA covers national olive exports in all forms. The report did not specify a deadline for reaching more than 40,000 tonnes, a breakdown by destination market, or a split between bulk and packaged product.

Tarom's position in that supply chain is built on climate. The county sits in a Mediterranean microclimate enclosed by the Alborz mountains, is watered by the Qezel Ozan river, and benefits from seasonal temperature differences that allow several olive varieties to be grown, Young Journalists Club reported. A significant part of the raw material used by Iran's large canning plants and oil mills comes from these orchards, and the crop is described as the backbone of local employment, with planting, tending, harvesting and processing cycles occupying thousands of local workers each year.

Zanjan expects a 55,000-tonne crop

Mozaffar Yousefipour, deputy for trade development and processing industries at the Zanjan provincial Agricultural Jihad organisation, told Tasnim that the province is forecast to produce 55,000 tonnes of olives, with export programmes drafted several months in advance both in Tarom county and at provincial level. Contacts built by local traders with buyers in target markets including Iraq, Russia and Armenia underpin a forecast increase in exports of up to 10 percent.

That is a far smaller step than the doubling described at national level. It also sets the provincial crop, at 55,000 tonnes, above the entire national export target of more than 40,000 tonnes, which indicates how much of Iranian olive output is absorbed domestically or moves through channels outside the export figure.

Processing capacity is not the stated constraint

Asked whether raw sales serve growers once export routes open, Yousefipour set out the licensed processing base in the province:

• 33 canned-olive units holding operating permits from Agricultural Jihad, with combined capacity of 19,000 tonnes and raw-material intake of 15,000 tonnes;
• 14 oil units with rated olive oil production capacity of 26,000 tonnes and raw-material intake of 89,000 tonnes;
• a provincial production forecast of 55,000 tonnes of olives.

On that basis, he said, there is no particular shortage of processing in the olive segment. The obstacles identified in the Young Journalists Club report lie elsewhere: weak modern branding infrastructure, traditional dependence on middlemen in selling the crop, and the need to upgrade conversion industries, which together leave growers and local producers with a smaller share of final value added. Optimal management of water resources under a changing climate is described as critical to keeping existing orchards productive.

Prices, licences and the value-added gap

Farmgate prices are rising. Yousefipour said the price would stand at 125,000 tomans from the following week, the level at which product had already been sold at the orchard the previous day, and that the current farmgate price is roughly two and a half times production cost. He called that level reasonable, said agreed purchases could be arranged if needed, and added that activity at production and processing units will determine export volumes and ultimately support prices further.

Both export licences are in place: bulk shipments, known locally as barrel exports, and packaged product. Yousefipour said barrel exports do not carry high value added, and that the aim is for most of the province's crop to be exported in cans and retail packaging. Branding work is planned in Tarom so the product can be presented in domestic and world consumption markets. Advanced packaging, technology applied to by-products and smoother international export routes could turn the county into a strong olive export hub in the Middle East, Young Journalists Club reported.