TEHRAN- The value of non-oil export from Golestan province, in the northeast of Iran, rose 32 percent during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, a provincial official announced.

Shahriyar Shahriyari, the director-general of the province’s Customs Department, said that over 209,274 tons of non-oil goods worth $114,261,503 were exported from the province in the five-month period of this year, with a 44-percent growth in weight, year on year.

He named eggs, polystyrene, cheese, iron pipes, fish food, chipboard sheets, nylon frames, copper wire, polyethylene compound and rebar as the main exported items, and Turkmenistan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Romania, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, India, and Kyrgyzstan as the major export destinations.

The official further announced that about 35,337 tons of non-oil products valued at $69.43 million were imported to the province in the first five months of the present year, with 289 percent rise in value, and 283 percent growth in weight, year on year.

He named sodium sulfate, rapeseed oil, cotton fabric, greenhouse equipment, diesel generator and calcined petroleum coke as the main imported items, and China, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Britain, Kazakhstan, India, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Taiwan, and Australia as the major sources of import to the province during the mentioned five-month period.

As previously announced by Darvish-Ali Hassan-Zadeh, the head of the province’s Industry, Mining and Trade Department, the value of export from Golestan province increased by 26 percent in the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20), as compared to the preceding year.

He said that non-oil commodities worth $235 million were exported from the province to 33 countries in the previous year.

According to the data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil exports during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year reached $19.3 billion.

Based on IRICA data, Iran exported about 55.9 million tons of non-oil goods valued at $19.3 billion in the mentioned five months, registering an 8.55-percent decline in value and a 26.56 percent rise in terms of weight, IRNA reported.

According to the IRICA, the main reason for the decline in the country’s export value in the mentioned period is the decrease in the global price of petrochemical products which account for a big share of the Iranian export basket.

As reported, the import of goods in the five months of this year also reached 14.4 million tons worth $24.2 billion, indicating a 7.49 percent growth in value and a 2.17 percent increase in weight, year on year.

The average value of each ton of exported goods was 346 dollars and the average customs value of each ton of imported goods was 1,677 dollars in the mentioned five months.

Major export destinations of the Iranian non-oil goods were China, Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India during the said time span.

The mentioned five countries accounted for 75.13 percent of the weight and 74.77 percent of the value of Iran’s total exports in the five months of this year.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates was the top exporter to Iran in the mentioned five months, followed by China, Turkey, India, and Germany.

MA