TEHRAN- The value of export from North Khorasan province, in the northeast of Iran, jumped 219 percent in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), as compared to the first quarter in the previous year, a provincial official announced.

Abbas Baqeri, the acting head of the province’s customs department, said that 36,370 tons of products worth $33,246,164 were exported from the province in the three-month period, indicating also 215 percent rise in terms of weight.

He named petrochemical products including urea fertilizer, ammonia and melamine crystal, steel products, edible citric acid, houseplants, plastic products, cans and alpha aluminum as the major exported items, and Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Turkey, Romania, Uzbekistan and Germany as the main export destinations.

The official further announced that commodities worth $8,781,197 were imported to the province in the first quarter of the present year, with one percent rise year on year.

He named air conditioner, flashlight, frozen red meat, electric motor, digital scale, can production line, and pipe production line as the main imported items, and China, Brazil, Oman and Turkey as the major sources of imports.

As previously announced by Mehrdad Davoudzadeh, the deputy head of the province’s Industry, Mining and Trade Department for commercial affairs and trade promotion, commodities valued at over $173 million were exported from North Khorasan during the previous Iranian calendar year 1400 (ended on March 20).

Davoudzadeh named Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Germany, India, Turkey, Ukraine, Pakistan, Poland, Syria, Russia, Kuwait, Austria, Oman, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, and Canada as the main destinations to them the products were exported from North Khorasan in the previous year.

Putting the province’s worth of imports at $42 million in the past year, the official further named China, Russia, Sudan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, South Korea, Turkey, India, Netherlands, Ethiopia, Denmark, Austria, Oman, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Italy, Turkmenistan, Sweden, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Azerbaijan and France as the major sources of imports.

As announced by the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil exports reached $13.69 billion in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year, up 21 percent compared to the last year’s same period.

Alireza Moghadasi said Iran exported 27.7 million tons of non-oil commodities in the mentioned three months.

Meanwhile, some 8.154 million tons of goods valued at $12.464 billion were imported into the country in the said period to register an 18-percent rise in terms of value compared to the last year’s same quarter.

In total, the Islamic Republic traded about 36 million tons of non-oil goods worth $25.5 billion with its trade partners in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year, up 19.5 percent in terms of value, Moghadasi said.

According to the official, the country’s trade balance was $605 million positive in the mentioned time span.

Iran's top export destination during this period was China with $4.214 billion worth of imports from the Islamic Republic, followed by Iraq with $1.824 billion, Turkey with $1.737 billion, the United Arab Emirates with over $1.645 billion, and India with $424 million.

Meanwhile, the country’s top five sources of imports during these three months were the UAE with $3.426 billion, China with $3.131 billion, Turkey with $1.273 billion, India with $512 million, and Germany with $456 million worth of imports.

MA/MA