Iran secured its first victory at the Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship in the Philippines. On Friday, Iranian women claimed a 3-0 (25-4, 25-13, 25-14) triumph over their Maldivian rivals in a Pool D match at Muntinlupa Sports Complex in Muntinlupa, Press TV reported.

The Iranians, having already failed to secure a berth among the top eight teams, almost blanked their opponents in the first set of the game, and only gave away four points due to their individual errors.

The Maldives then tried to recover from the humiliating opening set in the ensuing sets, managing to score 13 and 14 points respectively.

Iran’s hard-hitting spiker Mina Roosta led the scoring with 9 points, while Mahdieh Khajehkolaei, Mahsa Saberi and Neda Chamlanian had 8 apiece to contribute to Iran’s victory.

“We had two difficult matches against Chinese Taipei and Thailand and today we had a normal match against Maldives,” Mirmostafa Shojaei, technical advisor of the Iranian women’s volleyball team, said after the game.

He added, “We are preparing ourselves for future matches.” Iran will next take on Australia in a 9-14 playoffs fixture in Pool H on August 14. / Iran daily /

Deputy Iranian agriculture minister said Iran ranked first in the world as regards production of trout and sturgeon.

Deputy Minister of Agricultural and Head of Iran Fisheries Organization Hassan Salehi made the remarks adding “in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), Iran took a major step in the fisheries sector by realizing a production of nearly one million and 100 thousand tons of aquatic species.”

Of the overall output, 54% pertained to fishing in the sea and mainly free waters while the remaining 46 per cent resulted from farming fishery products giving the country the top position in this regard, he underlined.

He said the country gained a good position in the industry last year with exports of 120 thousand tons of fishery products and revenue of 412 million dollars.

“Over 400 processing centers are currently active in various fishery sectors like canning, powder production and packaging giving way to creation of 220,000 direct jobs.”

Salehi stressed that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) had played a huge role in the Iranian fishery industry asserting “Russia restricted imports from Europe and the US in retaliation for their sanctions creating an invaluable market for Iranian products.” The official, while noting that Iran still needs to work on establishing proper infrastructure for meeting demands of foreign buyers like Russia, said “today, Russians are putting a demand for 100,000 tons of Iranian fishery products, shrimp in particular.”

Deputy minister of agriculture went on to note that, following JCPOA implementation, three thousand tons of these products have been deployed to the Russian market.

“Last year 10,000 tons of the overall 160,000 tons of produced trout were exported while the figure for the present year has been targeted at 30,000 tons.”

The official further underscored that Iran has a low per capita consumption of about 10 kilograms while the global average stands at 20kg; “in a bid to boost people’s health, the current per capita needs to rise by producing processed products.” / Meher news /

Iranian short animated piece ‘The Servant’ has scooped Best Animation Award at 40th Elche International Independent Film Festival in Spain.

‘The Servant’ narrates the familiar story of a master and his servant, the story of a writer’s encounter with a gigantic insect: a cockroach. The cockroach becomes a servant but gradually begins to realize that it deserves better conditions, so it tries to turn the table and change the game in its own favor. The man, however, attempts to preserve the current situation but soon realizes that the game has no rules.

‘The Servant’ has previously won a number of international awards including best short animation award for February at London Independent Film Festival, second Best Animation Award at the 20th San Francisco Black Film Festival (SFBFF), and Best Short Animation award at the 2017 Silver Scream Festival in California, US.

Elche is Spain’s 12th oldest film festival, and a contributor to Goya Awards – Spain’s main national annual film awards.

The 40th edition of Elche International Independent Film Festival was held on July 14-21, 2017.

/ Meher news /

T he 17th International Exhibition of Construction Industry is scheduled to be held in Tehran’s International Fairground from August 12 to 15, Mohammad Karimi, an official with Iran Chamber of Cooperatives, announced. Close to 890 companies from Iran and 390 foreign companies or their representatives from Turkey, China, Germany, Italy, Canada, Austria, Spain, Australia, the UK, Ukraine, Belgium, Portugal, Taiwan and Russia, to name a few, will be participating in the event to showcase their latest achievements and products in the field, IRNA reported. / financial tribune /

Iran can host one million health tourists, said Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare Ali Rabiei.

Addressing representatives of 32 countries in a meeting on medical tourism in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province, on Tuesday, Rabiei said, Iran’s most important feature in medical tourism is the low price it offers compared to those in other countries, IRNA reported.

Iran’s medical tourism, he noted, has other attractions as well, such as the country’s high security, experienced medical staff, spas, salt-water lakes, and mud therapy facilities.

In terms of its natural, climatic and historical attractions, Iran ranks tenth, fifth and fourth respectively in the world, he added.

Thanks to its geographical location, conditions in neighboring countries, reasonable prices and advanced medical facilities, Iran is gradually becoming a destination for health tourists from the region, especially from Muslim countries.

Hospitals in Iranian cities offer medical and healthcare services for foreign health tourists. Medical services in Iran are comparable with those offered in advanced countries. Geographical proximity as well as cultural and religious commonalities have turned Iran into one of the best and most economically attractive destinations for health tourists.

Iran has a highly educated workforce and is a local leader in scientific and health development. It is one of the top five countries in the world in biotech and nine out of 15 high-usage biotech molecules are produced in Iran.

Hence, the country has a great opportunity to attract health tourists from Muslim countries. For instance, the existence of mineral springs in many parts of the country makes it an ideal location for health tourism.

Other potential areas include fertility treatment, stem cell treatment, dialysis, heart surgery, cosmetic surgery and eye surgery. It also produces specialized medicines such as the anti-AIDS drug IMOD, and other high-tech drugs.

Foreign health tourists can be subdivided in two groups. The first includes those who travel from advanced countries to other parts of the world seeking high-level medical service at considerably lower prices.

The other group of health tourists are those who come from less advanced and less developed countries where medical services are not satisfactory and Iran can offer them greater health services at very reasonable prices.

About 30,000 health tourists come to Iran each year, in addition to some 200,000 health, fitness and spa tourists. / Iran daily /

Iran exported $412 million of fisheries in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), IRNA quoted Hassan Salehi, the head of Iran’s Fisheries Organization, as saying on Monday.

The country plans to increase the value of its fishery exports up to $450-$500 million by the end of the current calendar year (March 20, 2018), according to Isa Golshahi, Iran Fisheries Organization’s director general for quality improvement, processing, and market development.

Over 1.05 million tons of fisheries was produced in Iran during the past calendar year, Salehi had previously said, adding it played some significant role in creation of job and income in the rural areas.

The figure is planned to reach 1.100 million tons in the current year, the official said on Monday.

After the implementation of nuclear deal with world powers in January 2016, Iranian government has focused on development of domestic fishery industry to attract foreign investments and increase the country’s share of the international market, the head of Fisheries Organization said in February.

In this due, related negotiations have been done with some foreign countries such as France, Romania, Finland, Italy, China, Vietnam, Russia, and Thailand, he added.

M ore than 58.2 tons of saffron worth $78.58 million were exported to 50 countries during the first four months of the current fiscal year (March 21-July 22), registering a 25.3% and 22.9% growth in weight and value respectively compared with the corresponding period of last year. Spain, Australia, South Africa, Germany, the UAE, Italy, Bahrain, the UK, the US, Belgium, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Taiwan, Turkey, the Czech Republic, South Korea and China were among the main export destinations of Iranian saffron over the period. Iran is the world’s biggest saffron producer and accounts for more than 90% of the global production, ISNA reported. Close to 95% of Iranian saffron are grown in the two provinces of South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi in northeastern Iran. “More than 172 tons of saffron worth $246.7 million were exported to 47 countries in the last Iranian year that ended on March 20,” Gholamreza Miri, chairman of Iran’s National Saffron Center, said. The figure showed a 32.3% rise in weight compared to the preceding year. / Financial tribune /

Iranian animated piece ‘Kelileh & Demneh’, directed by Alireza Tavakoli, has won Special Jury Award at the Children’s Fest section of 2017 Eurasia International Film Festival in Kazakhstan.

Directed by Alireza Tavakoli and produced by Zahra Hashemi, ‘Kalila and Dimna’ experienced its first international screening at the 13th Eurasia International Film Festival, considered as Kazakhstan’s most important cinematic event.

Kelileh and Demneh are two young jackals. The drama starts in the middle of a rainy night when the horrified owl pays a visit to the king of the jungle to report about the excessive hunting he had witnessed.

In the 2015 edition of the festival, highly-acclaimed Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya won Best Female Performance for ‘Nabat’.

The 13th edition Eurasia International Film Festival was held in Astana from July 22 through July 28. / Mehernews /

Iran exported $173 million worth of livestock feed in the last Iranian year that ended on March 20, 2017, registering a 33% increase compared with the year before, an official with the Agriculture Ministry said.

“The export destinations mainly included the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Oman, Turkey and Qatar,” Touraj Saremi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency. /  Financial tribune /