Official Predicts 15-Billion-Dollar Market for Iran’s Medicinal Plants Next Year
“The value of this sector in the production and harvesting sector is $1.5 to $2 billion, in the import sector of medicinal plants $0.15 billion, in the export sector of medicinal plants $0.5 billion, and in the import sector of essential oils and extracts $0.3 billion,” said Seyed Seif Sahandi, the deputy head of the Technology Development Headquarters for Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine of Iran.
“The market capacity of medicinal plants and traditional medicine is estimated at approximately $13 to $15 billion,” he said, adding that the value chain of medicinal plants industries is $10 to $11 billion, and the value chain of traditional medicine is $2.7 to $4 billion.
“A year ago, the area under cultivation of medicinal plants was nearly 224,000 hectares, of which 50% is related to saffron cultivation. Cumin with 15%, rosehip with 10%, and fixweed with 5% are in the next ranks of the area under cultivation of medicinal plants, respectively,” Sahandi noted.
In July 2019, Javad Mirarab an official with the Ministry of Agriculture had said that medicinal plants were cultivated on some 188,000 hectares of lands in Iran.
He also said that exports of the aforesaid medicinal plants brought $450 million for Iran last year, and saffron with a value of $325 million constituted the largest share of exports.
Meanwhile, head of the natural products department at Food and Drug Administration Mahnaz Khanavi said that natural and herbal medicines constitute 4 percent of the total amount of medicines used in the country.
4155/v
