Agriculture in Iran - Livestock

Livestock

Of the country's livestock, sheep are by far the most numerous, followed by goats, cattle, donkeys, horses, water buffalo, and mules. The raising of poultry for eggs and meat is prevalent. One area where production infrastructure has progressed rapidly is the poultry sector. The face of the industry has now been transformed dramatically so that the entire supply chain process can take place domestically.

Iran has also a large dairy industry and imported close to two million tonnes of feed grain annually in 2006. The raising of Pigs is forbidden in Iran due to Islamic law.

Production of livestock increased over the past three years to reach 11.3 million tons in 2008 from the 10.6 million tons in 2007, and 9.9 million tons in 2006. Meat processing capacity is at 400,000 tons and 140 production units (2009). In 2008, per capita meat consumption was 26 kg. Iran produced 950,000 tons of red meat and 1,600,000 tons of chicken in 2010.