TEHRAN- The value of Iran’s export to Nigeria rose eight percent during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, an official with Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) announced.

Making the remarks in a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Nigeria Mohammad Ali-Bak, Farzad Piltan, director-general of TPO’s Office of Arabian and African Countries, said that Iran has exported commodities worth nearly $44 million to the African country in the six-month period.

Regarding the facilitation of trade with this country, he announced Iran's readiness in the field of exchanging trade delegations, exhibition cooperation and holding a meeting of the joint economic committee of the two countries and establishing a private sector relationship with the Iranian embassy in Nigeria.

Urea was Iran's most important exported product to Nigeria, followed by tires, pastes, biscuits and human injection syringes, Piltan said.

The Iranian ambassador to Nigeria for his part expressed satisfaction with the growing trend of exports from Iran to Nigeria, and called for more cooperation from TPO to guide and encourage the private sector to use the large market with a population of 220 million of the African country.

Back in February, Piltan had announced the opening of a €200 million credit line for the TPO to use for developing exports of commodities and services to African countries.

“The mentioned fund has been allocated as part of a $2-billion support package which has been allocated by National Development Fund (NDF) for developing the country’s non-oil exports,” the official said.

As announced by the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 47 percent during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Mehdi Mir-Ashrafi said that Iran has traded 79.1 million tons of non-oil products worth $45 billion with other countries in the mentioned period.

The official put the six-month non-oil exports at 60 million tons valued at $21.8 billion, with a 61-percent rise in value and a 30-percent growth in weight.

The IRICA head mentioned liquefied natural gas, methanol, polyethylene, semi-finished iron products, iron ingots, propane, urea, gasoline, iron rods and cathodes as the main exported products in the said time span.

He said major export destinations of the Iranian non-oil goods were China with about 14.8 million tons worth $6.5 billion, Iraq with 13.9 million tons worth $3.8 billion, Turkey with 7.2 million tons worth $2.3 billion, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 5.8 million tons worth $2.2 billion, and Afghanistan with 2.5 million tons worth $1.0 billion.

MA/MA