TEHRAN - Iran’s trade with the members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) reached $4.976 billion in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22) to register a 38 percent increase year on year, the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said.

According to Rouhollah Latfi, the volume of trade with the mentioned countries also increased by eight percent in comparison to the previous year’s same five months, IRNA reported.

As reported, during the mentioned five months Iran traded over 7,944,322 tons of commodities with ECO member countries including Turkey, Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Iran exported 6,107,311 tons of commodities worth over $2.953 billion to the said nations in the mentioned period.

He said major export destinations of the Iranian goods in the said union were Turkey with about $1.106 billion of imports, Afghanistan with $855 million, Pakistan with $421 million, Uzbekistan with $174 million, and Azerbaijan with $161 million.

Meanwhile, the country imported 1,837,011 tons of goods valued at over $2.014 billion from the ECO member countries, with Turkey, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan being the top sources of imported goods.

According to Latifi, more than 23.723 million tons of goods worth $11.71 billion were traded between Iran and the ECO member countries during the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), of which the share of exports was 18.419 million tons of goods worth $6.890 billion and the share of imports from these countries was 5.312 million tons worth $4.819 billion.

The value of Iran’s total non-oil trade during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year stood at $34 billion, which indicates a 38-percent growth in terms of value and 14 percent growth in terms of weight as compared to the previous year’s same time span.

The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is an Asian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.

EF/MA