TEHRAN – Iran exported 6.263 million tons of agricultural and foodstuff products worth $3.878 billion in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21, 2021), Deputy Agriculture Minister Mohammad Ghorbani said.

According to Ghorbani, Iranian farmers exported 795,000 tons of watermelon, 617,000 tons of fresh or chilled tomatoes, 598,000 tons of fresh apples, 528,000 tons of fresh or chilled potatoes, and 284,000 tons of onions, shallots, and garlic in the mentioned period, IRIB reported.

The above-mentioned products were the top exported items during the mentioned nine months in terms of weight, the official said.

He also noted that in terms of value, pistachio, tomatoes, watermelons, dates, and apples were the top exported items, respectively.

In the mentioned period, over 23.411 million tons of agricultural and foodstuff products were also imported into the country, Ghorbani noted.

The five major imported items in the said time span in terms of weight were livestock corn with 6.893 million tons of imports, wheat with 5.28 million tons, barley with 2.678 million tons, soybean meal with 1.971 million tons, and soybean with 1.823 million tons of imports.

The country’s livestock and poultry sectors exported 443,000 tons of products worth $406 million during the said period, while fishery export stood at 88,000 tons worth $159 million, export from the agricultural sector was $4.11 million tons worth $1.409 billion, and orchards exported 1.707 million tons of products worth $1.877 billion.

The total value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 38 percent during the first nine months of the current year as compared to the same period of time in the past year, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) has 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.

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.

EF/MA