TEHRAN - The value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 38 percent during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, the acting head of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Alireza Moghadasi said that Iran has traded over 122.5 million tons of non-oil products worth $72.1 billion with other countries in the mentioned period, IRNA reported.

According to Moghadasi, the weight of trade in the mentioned period also grew by 11 percent in comparison to the figure for the previous fiscal year.

The official put the nine-month non-oil exports at 92.3 million tons valued at $35.1 billion, with a 40-percent rise in value and eight percent growth in weight.

He noted that the value of the country’s non-oil exports in the first nine months of the current year has exceeded the total value of exports in the previous year and the figure is expected to reach $47 billion by the end of the current calendar year (March 20, 2022).

Moghadasi said the value of Iran’s non-oil trade with foreign partners is expected to reach $98 billion by the yearend.

According to the official, petrochemical products accounted for 42 percent of the total value of the exports in the said time span, with 42.4 million tons worth $14.7 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.

Moghadasi further announced that the Islamic Republic imported 30.1 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $37 billion in the first nine months of the present year, with a 37-percent growth in value and a 20-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 acting head, out of the total non-oil goods imported into the country in the first nine months of this year, 23.1 million tons worth $12.4 billion were basic goods, which indicate an increase of 32 percent in weight and 61 percent in value, year on year.

IRICA has previously announced that the value of Iran’s non-oil trade stood at $73 billion in the past Iranian calendar year.

IRICA former Head Mehdi Mir-Ashrafi had put the weight of non-oil trade at 146.4 million tons and said that the figure showed a 25-million-ton annual decline, which is the result of sanctions and coronavirus pandemic.

Iran’s non-oil export was 112 million tons valued at $34.5 billion, and that of import was 34.4 million tons worth $38.5 billion in the past year, the official added.

Among the country’s non-oil export destinations, China was the first, with importing $8.9 billion worth of products, Iraq was the second with importing $7.3 billion, the United Arab Emirates the third with importing $4.6 billion, Turkey the fourth with importing $2.5 billion, and Afghanistan the fifth with importing $2.2 billion, Mir-Ashrafi announced, and named gasoline, natural gas, polyethylene, propane, and pistachio as Iran’s major exported products during the past year.

He further named Iran’s top sources of non-oil imports in the said time, as China with exporting $9.7 billion worth of products to the Islamic Republic, the UAE with $9.6 billion, Turkey with $4.3 billion, India with $2.1 billion, and Germany with $1.8 billion, respectively, and mentioned corn, cellphone, rice, oil meal, and oilseeds, wheat, and raw oil as the major imported items.

EF/MA