TEHRAN- Iran exported $11.5 billion of non-oil commodities during spring, which corresponds to the first quarter of the Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), head of Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) announced on Sunday.

Mohammadreza Modoudi said that the non-oil exports during spring of this year has not changed compared to the spring of previous year, IRIB reported.

The official put the value of non-oil imports at $10.2 billion during the first quarter of this year, falling 8.7 percent from that of the same period of time in the previous year.

As previously announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil exports stood at $44.3 billion in the previous year while $42.6 billion worth of commodities were shipped into the country.

Iran shares border with fifteen countries, namely the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Oman, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

Based on the data published by TPO, the value of trade with the neighboring countries stood at over $36.5 billion in the past Iranian calendar year, that is about 41 percent of the country’s total non-oil trade in the mentioned time span.

Iran plans to launch 15 mega export projects to identify more target markets, according to TPO head.

Mohammadreza Modoudi said with the implementation of these projects, which mainly focus on the markets of neighboring countries, identifying professional trade and promoting export of non-oil commodities will be put on agenda, Mehr news agency reported.

The official further referred to the $1.7 billion positive trade balance in the country’s non-oil trade in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2019), and said this positive balance was achieved through cooperation with the private sector.

On June 24, Sadeq Najafi, the senior advisor to Iran’s industry, mining and trade minister, said the ministry has planned that the annual export of commodities and services to Iran’s 15 neighbor countries will reach $32 billion in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 19, 2020).

Making the remarks in a meeting with the members of Iran’s Free Trade Zone Fraction, the official mentioned supporting exports by the production units as another plan of the ministry in this year which is named the Year of Pickup in Production.

In mid-April, Iranian industry, mining and trade minister said the country plans to double its exports to the neighboring countries by the Iranian calendar year of 1400 (which starts in March 2021).

Mentioning the fact that only two percent of the total imports of Iran’s neighbors comes from the Islamic country, Reza Rahmani noted that his ministry is going to focus on developing domestic production and defining new projects to manufacture all the industrial equipment needed inside the country.

The official further pointed to some of the potent areas which could be worked on in order to increase exports including home appliances, apparel industry, petrochemicals, and marine industries, basic metals such as steel, aluminum and copper as well as agriculture.

MA/MA