TEHRAN – The value of exports from South Khorasan province, in the east of Iran, rose 22 percent during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-November 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, a provincial official announced.

Hasan Rahimizadeh, the director-general of the province’s customs department, said that 606,392 tons of products worth $512.641 million have been exported from the province in the eight-month period, also indicating 35 percent growth in terms of weight year on year.

The official named cement, ceramic tiles, light hydrocarbons, gas oil, dates, bitumen and rebar as the main exported items, and Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkmenistan as the main export destinations.

As announced by the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 40 percent during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Mehdi Mir-Ashrafi has said that Iran traded over 110.3 million tons of non-oil products worth $63.1 billion with other countries in the mentioned period.

According to the IRICA head, the weight of trade in the mentioned period also grew by 43.5 percent in comparison to the figure for the previous fiscal year.

The official put the eight-month non-oil exports at 83.7 million tons valued at $31.1 billion, with a 42-percent rise in value and 10.5-percent growth in weight.

Mir-Ashrafi noted that petrochemical products accounted for 43 percent of the total value of the exports in the said time span, with 39.8 million tons worth $13.3 billion of the said products being exported to foreign markets.

He said major export destinations of the Iranian non-oil goods were China, Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Afghanistan.

The official further announced that the Islamic Republic imported 26.5 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $32 billion in the first eight months of the present year, with a 38-percent growth in value and a 21-percent rise in weight year on year.

The United Arab Emirates was the top exporter to Iran in the said period, followed by China, Turkey, Germany, and Switzerland, he stated.

According to the IRICA head, out of the total non-oil goods imported into the country in the first eight months of this year, 20.3 million tons worth $12.4 billion were basic goods, which accounted for 38 percent of the total value of the imports.

MA/MA