TEHRAN- Iran exported over 60,000 tons of date to 52 countries during the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-July 21), the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Ruhollah Latifi put the value of the four-month export at $53.051 million, and mentioned Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Qatar, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Britain, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, China, and Hungary as some of the export destinations of Iranian date, IRIB reported.

The official said that through importing $9.729 million worth of date, Iraq was the major importer of the Iranian product, while Pakistan and Kazakhstan came next, importing $7.647 million, and $5.91 million worth of the product, respectively.

Every year, up to 1.2 million tons of various types of dates are produced in 203,763 hectares of land in Iran, making the country the second largest producer in terms of production and area under cultivation and the fifth largest exporter.

As previously announced by an IRICA official, the value of Iran’s agricultural exports increased 6.8 percent during the first four months of the current Iranian year, compared to the same period of time in the past year.

IRICA Deputy Head for Technical and Customs Affairs Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi put the four-month agricultural exports at 2.706 million tons worth $1.69 billion and said that the exports also show a 30-percent rise in terms of weight.

Last year, 2.074 million tons of agricultural products valued at $1.582 billion had been exported during the first four months, the official added.

The acting head of Agriculture Ministry’s Economic Affairs Department Shahrokh Shajari has put Iran’s exports of the mentioned products at about 7.104 million tons worth $5.8 billion in the past Iranian calendar year.

In the previous year, over 6.941 million tons of agricultural and foodstuff products worth $6.392 billion were also imported into the country, according to Shajari.

Watermelons, apples, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and shallots were the top five exported products in the previous year in terms of weight, while in terms of value, pistachios, apples, tomatoes, pistachio kernels, and watermelons were the five major export products, the official said.

Shajari further pointed to the major imported items in terms of weight, saying, corn, barley, soybean meal, soybean, and untreated sugar were the top five imported items, while in terms of value livestock corn, rice, barley, and soybeans were the top imported products.

MA/MA