Annual agro-food exports increase over 22%

The value of Iran’s exports of agricultural and foodstuff products increased by 22.5 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), the spokesman of the International Relations and Trade Development Committee of Iran’s House of Industry, Mining and Trade said.
According to Ruhollah Latifi, Iranian producers managed to export about $6.3 billion worth of the mentioned products in the said year, IRNA reported.

As reported, agro-food products accounted for 12.8 percent of the country’s total non-oil exports in the previous year.
Iraq was the top destination for Iran’s agro-food products in the mentioned year importing $1.986 billion worth of the said items. The Arab neighbor accounted for 31.5 percent of the total exports of food and agricultural products from Iran.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) stood in second place, importing $751 million of the mentioned products, followed by Russia with $521.5 million.
The value of Iran’s total foreign trade including oil and technical engineering services reached $153.17.8 billion in the last Iranian calendar year.
According to the Head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA Mohammad Rezvanifar, the value of the Islamic Republic’s trade with the partners in the previous year increased by 2.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

The official put the country’s non-oil exports, excluding exports of electricity, crude oil, and techno-engineering services, at 136.4 million tons worth $49.33 billion which shows a 9.82 percent rise in terms of tonnage and an 8.87 percent decline in terms of value.
Iran exported $35.87 billion of crude oil, $370 million of electricity, and $1.293 billion of technical engineering services in the mentioned year, according to Rezvanifar.

According to him, during this period, 48.8 million tons of petrochemical products worth $19.4 billion were also exported, which shows a decrease of 11.32 percent and 28.59 percent in terms of weight and value, respectively.
During this period, liquefied natural gas with $3.9 billion, liquefied propane with $3.62 billion, and bitumen-oil with $2.19 billion were Iran’s top exported items.

Iran’s top export destination during this period was China with $13.915 billion worth of imports from the Islamic Republic, followed by Iraq with $9.215 billion, the UAE with over $6.611 billion, Turkey with $4.16 billion, and India with $2.17 billion.
The official put the average customs value of each ton of exported goods at $362 which has decreased by 17 percent compared to the preceding year.
During this period, 39 million tons of goods worth $66.28 billion were also imported into the country, which shows an increase of 4.39 percent in terms of weight and 77.9 percent in terms of value, he said.

The country’s top five sources of imports in the previous year were the UAE with $20.782 billion, China with $18.545 billion, Turkey with $7.541 billion, Germany with $2.155 billion, and India with $1.917 billion worth of imports.
Corn, mobile phones, and gold ingots were the top three imported items followed by soybeans, automobile parts, sunflower seeds, and safflower were the five main items imported by the Islamic Republic.

Rezvanifar said the average customs value of each ton of imported goods increased by $5.16 and reached $1,697.
Iran’s trade with its neighbors also increased by 1.35 percent in the previous year to reach $60.773 billion, according to Rezvanifar.
He put the weight of non-oil trade with the neighboring countries at 95.924 million tons in the said period, which was 2.45 percent less than the figure for the preceding year.

During the past year, Iran exported $28.288 billion worth of goods to its neighbors, while importing commodities valued at $32.485 billion.
Iran’s exports to neighboring countries decreased by 9.51 percent in the mentioned year; while the imports from neighboring countries increased by 13.17 percent.

He named Iraq, the UAE, Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as the top importers of Iranian goods among the neighboring countries, and the UAE, Turkey, Russia, Oman, and Pakistan as the main sources of imports in the previous.