Determination and Assessment of Green, Blue and Gray Water Footprints in the International Trade of Agricultural Products of Iran

Iran’s climate is arid and semi-arid and subject to droughts and water crises In order to alleviate water crises, international trade of Agricultural Products can play a significant role in redistributing water resources because the traded goods contain a large amount of virtual water. Therefore, this research focuses on a comprehensive study of Iran’s water footprint and virtual water trade using three specific water named Green water, Blue water and Grey water. Using the concept of virtual water introduced by Allan 1994 and developed by Hoekstra and Hung (2002), we estimated virtual water trade for all crops of Iran during 2016-2018. The results show that Average virtual water export of Iran is 6.232 billion m3/year and virtual water import is 18.838 billion m3/year and in general, Iran is a net importer of virtual water during this time period. Virtual water import to Iran are mainly through green water and green water contribute to 75.21% of total virtual water import. The blue water is the largest of Iran’s virtual water exporter and contribute to 65.36 % of total virtual water export. Iran mainly imports green virtual water from the India, Russia, Brazil, England, Switzerland, Singapore and Pakistan and mainly exports blue virtual water to the Iraq, UAE, Vietnam, Pakistan, India, Hong Kong, Russia. The 94 % of virtual water exported by Iran is linked to Fruits and Nuts. Which are mainly through Pistachio, dates, apples, peppers and tomatoes. Also, 81% of Iran’s virtual water imports are from cereals. Finally, it was found that spatial distance and having a common land-sea border had a positive impact on Iran's virtual water trade and most of the virtual water imports and exports were with countries that had a common border with Iran. Also, importing virtual water through importing agricultural products can save water at national level.