TEHRAN- The spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said that the country has exported 17,810 tons of spices valued at $94.56 million during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-August 21).

Ruhollah Latifi said that saffron accounted for 70 percent of the total value, and 0.5 percent of the total weight of the export during the mentioned five-month period, IRIB reported.

The IRICA spokesman further said that the Iranian spices have been exported to 43 countries in the first five months of this year and mentioned Azerbaijan, Britain, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Kuwait, Qatar, Afghanistan, Turkey, Armenia, Germany, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Indonesia, France, and Switzerland as some export destinations of the products.

Pakistan, Hong Kong, and UAE were the major importers of Iranian spices in the said period.

The official also put the country’s imports of spices at 15,442 tons valued at $28.372 million during the five-month period and named ginger as the main imported item.

Latifi said Iran has imported spices from 11 countries including India, UAE, Austria, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, China, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Turkey.

India, UAE, and China were the main exporters of spices to Iran in the mentioned time span.

As previously reported by IRICA, Iran imported $13.7 billion worth of goods, while exporting $10.9 billion during the first five months of this year.

The volume of traded goods was estimated at about 52 million tons, of which over 38 million tons were related to exports and about 13.8 million tons were imported goods.

Iran's top five non-oil export destinations during this period were China with over $3 billion worth of exports, Iraq with $2.406 billion, the United Arab Emirates with over $1.554 billion, and Afghanistan with $871 million as well as Turkey with $513 million, so the country’s top five export destinations remained the same in comparison to previous months, according to IRICA.

China accounted for over 28 percent of Iran’s total exports, followed by Iraq, UAE, Afghanistan, and Turkey with 22 percent, 14 percent, 8 percent, and 4.7 percent respectively.

The top five sources of imports during this period were China with $3.552 billion, the UAE with $3.186 billion, Turkey with $1.475 billion, India with $941 million, and Germany with $548 million worth of imports.

China accounted for nearly 26 percent of Iran’s total imports, followed by UAE, Turkey, India, and Germany with 23 percent, 10.7 percent, 6.8 percent, and 4.8 percent, respectively.

MA/MA