TEHRAN – The value of Iran’s exports of agricultural and foodstuff products increased by 23 percent in the first 11 months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2023-February 19, 2024), the spokesman of the International Relations and Trade Development Committee of Iran's House of Industry, Mining and Trade said.

According to Ruhollah Latifi, Iranian producers managed to export about $5.6 billion worth of the mentioned products in the said 11 months, Mehr News Agency reported.

As reported, agro-food products accounted for 12.5 percent of the country’s total non-oil exports in the mentioned 11 months.

Iraq was the top destination for Iran’s agro-food products in the mentioned period importing $1.784 billion worth of the said items. The Arab neighbor accounted for 32 percent of the total exports of food and agricultural products from Iran.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) stood in second place, importing $675.783 million of the mentioned products, followed by Russia with $464.572 million.

The value of Iran’s foreign trade including oil and technical engineering services reached $138.8 billion in the first 11 months of the current Iranian calendar year, according to Mohammad Rezavinifar, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

The value of the Islamic Republic’s trade with the partners in the mentioned 11 months increased by 2.7 percent compared to the same period last year.

The official put the country’s non-oil exports, excluding exports of electricity, crude oil, and techno-engineering services, at 124.7 million tons worth $44.8 billion which shows an 11.42 percent rise in terms of tonnage and an 8.87 percent decline in terms of value.

He said that Iran’s foreign trade, including oil exports, has registered a $19 billion surplus while seeing a $15 billion deficit without petrodollars.

Iran exported $32.59 billion of crude oil and $1.9 billion of technical engineering services in the first 11 months of this year, according to Rezvanifar.

During this period, liquefied natural gas with $3.0 billion, liquefied propane with $2.8 billion, and methanol with $2.0 billion were Iran’s top exported items.

Iran's top export destination during this period was China with $12.7 billion worth of imports from the Islamic Republic, followed by Iraq with $8.6 billion, the UAE with over $5.9 billion, Turkey with $3.8 billion, and India with $2.0 billion.

The country’s top five sources of imports in the first 11 months of the current year were the UAE with $18.6 billion, China with $16.8 billion, Turkey with $6.8 billion, Germany with $1.9 billion, and India with $1.8 billion worth of imports.

Corn, mobile phones, soybeans, automobile parts, sunflower seeds, and safflower were the five main items imported by the Islamic Republic.

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