TEHRAN – Iran exported $850 million of food products in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-August 21), Mehr news agency quoted Mojtaba Khosrotaj, director of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), as saying on Saturday.

Based on the report, dairy products are on the top of the food exports list with a value of $256 million, followed by confectionary and processed products, like tomato paste, valued at $178 million and $77 million respectively. 

Canned foods also were among top exported items which accounted for $70 million of the total exports value.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Khsorotaj noted that based on statistics the country has witnessed only a two percent growth in this area adding, “The main reason for the dim figures in this area is the high prices of raw materials for the food industry around the world.”

“Due to the sanctions most of the country’s food products were sent to the neighboring countries like Iraq and Afghanistan or to Central Asian and Caucasian countries, but under the new conditions we should be able to export to other parts of the world,” he said.

According to Abdolmahdi Bakhshandeh, the Iranian deputy agriculture minister for planning and economic affairs, exports of Iran’s agricultural products experienced a 12 percent increase in terms of weight and stood at 2.86 million tons during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year.

The value of exported agro products in this period hit $1.92 billion.

EF/MG