FAO announced that Iran has become self-sufficient in milk production

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran has become self-sufficient in milk production and will export milk for the first time this year.

In this regard, Deputy Minister of Agricultural Jihad Sa’adatollah Abbasi said the country has produced over 9.5 million tons of milk till March 2010, adding the figure could be increased to 13 million tons by the end of the 5th Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2010-15).

At the beginning of the 4th Five-Year Economic Development Plan in 2005, per capita consumption of animal protein in Iran was 23 grams while the figure reached 28 grams at the end of the plan in 2010, Abbasi stated.

He predicted that per capita consumption of animal protein in Iran would be increased to 35 grams till the end of the fifth plan.

FAO, in its report entitled “World Food Outlook 2010”, announced that Iran is the 6th greatest milk producer in Asia and the 18th in the world.

It added in 2010, Iran will export 100,000 tons of milk for the first time.