TEHRAN- About one million tons of commodities valued at $517 million have been exported from Markazi Province, central Iran, during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-November 20), according to a provincial official.

Esmaeil Hosseini, the director-general of the province’s customs department, said the province has exported products to 88 countries during the eight-month period.

He named petrochemical products, home appliances, food and beverage as the main exported items, and neighboring countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan as the top export destinations.

He also said that over 94,000 tons of products worth $240 million have been imported to the province from 44 countries in the first eight months of the present year, and named raw materials, machinery, and foodstuff as the main imported items; Turkey, China, India, and Germany as the top exporters of goods to the province.

As announced by the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil trade during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year reached $44.6 billion.

Mehdi Mirashrafi has said that in the mentioned eight months, Iran imported $23.1 billion worth of goods, while the exports stood at $21.5 billion.

The total volume of traded goods was estimated at about 97.7 million tons, of which over 75 million tons were related to exports and about 21.8 million tons were imported goods.

According to Mirashrafi, the imports in the said period declined one percent and 18 percent in terms of weight and value, respectively.

The exports also experienced a fall of 14 percent and 19 percent in terms of weight and value, respectively.

Noting the downward trend of the country’s foreign trade is ending and the trade is getting back to normal, the official said: "As we announced in previous months, fortunately, the downward trend of our country's exports is approaching normal conditions month by month, and we hope to have better conditions in terms of exports by the end of the year."

Iran's top five non-oil export destinations during this period were Iraq with over $5.3 billion worth of exports, China with the same amount, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with over $2.7 billion, and Turkey with $1.6 billion as well as Afghanistan with $1.5 billion.

According to the IRICA head, the top five sources of imports during this period were China with $6 billion, the UAE with $5.4 billion, Turkey with $2.6 billion, India with $1.4 billion, and Germany with $1.1 billion worth of imports.

Most of the imported goods into the country in the mentioned time span were basic goods or raw materials, Mirashrafi stressed.

MA/MA