TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Mehdi Zeyghami has emphasized supporting domestic producers and strengthening specialized exhibitions in order to develop non-oil exports.

Zeyghami made the remarks on the sidelines of a visit to the 24th edition of Iran's International Home Appliance Manufacturers Exhibition (HAMEX 2024) on Monday.

The TPO head was accompanied by Ahmed Asadian, deputy director of supervision at Inspection Organization of Iran and Deputy Industry Minister Mohammad-Mehdi Baradaran.

During the visit, Asadian also pointed to the importance of strengthening the country's non-oil exports and underlined the significance of holding specialized and international exhibitions, including the home appliances exhibition, as a good opportunity to present the capabilities of domestic producers.

Baradaran, for his part, mentioned the importance of strengthening domestic production during this visit, saying: “The export of home appliances in the first four months of this [Iranian calendar] year (March 20-July 21) increased by 11 percent compared to the same period last year.”

HAMEX 2024 was held at Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds during August 9-13.

In this exhibition, a variety of home appliances such as cooling and heating products, audio and video products, kitchen appliances, utensils and dishes, gas stoves and grills, barbecue and fryers, vacuum cleaners, irons, juicers, meat grinders, tea makers, and sewing machines were showcased by over 300 domestic and foreign companies.

As IRNA reported, 28 foreign companies active in the field of manufacturing home appliance parts and equipment also participated in this exhibition.

The home appliance industry is one of the industries that faced significant production growth in the past few years, so it can be said that Iranian manufacturers were able to take a significant share of the market in the production of refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, evaporative coolers, and TV sets, and even in small household appliances, the production status is outstanding.

Over the past few years, the Iranian government has been following a new strategy for supporting domestic production to neutralize the impacts of the U.S. sanctions while reducing the reliance of the economy on oil revenues.

The home appliances sector has been one of the pioneers in this regard and like many other areas, the production of home appliances has witnessed a significant rise in the past two years so that this industry’s production increased by 18 percent in the past Iranian year (ended on March 19).

In mid-June, the secretary general of the Association of Home Appliances Manufacturers in Iran said the production of home appliances increased by 18.2 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year compared to a year before.

According to Omid Fazeli-Nia, production of home appliances reached 19.5 million units in the previous year from 16.5 million units a year earlier.

Back in January, the head of the Association of Home Appliances Manufacturers in Iran said that over the past few years, the production of home appliances has increased from eight million units to more than 17 million units

Alireza Mohammadi Daniali said that the industry has expanded by 25 percent.

Mentioning some of the challenges that manufacturers of home appliances are currently facing, the official said: “Producers have problems such as mandated pricing, lack of liquidity, lack of foreign currency supply, and exports, which need to be addressed and resolved.”

EF/MA