TEHRAN- More than 5.36 million tons of basic commodities were transported from five port cities of the country to the designated destinations during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21), the director-general of coordination department of Government Trading Corporation of Iran announced.

Siavash Hosseinpour said that the mentioned goods include types of rice, wheat, raw sugar and oil, which according to the company's schedule have been sent to different parts of the country by rail and road for storage.

This amount of goods has been loaded and transported from the provinces of Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Sistan-Baluchestan (Chabahar Port), Mazandaran and Gilan, the official added.

Last week, the head of Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) announced that unloading of basic goods at the port of country has risen 25 percent in the current Iranian calendar year, as compared to the previous year.

The highest amount of import of basic goods was related to Imam Khomeini port (in southwestern Khuzestan province), Ali-Akbar Safaei noted.

"Currently, 17 ships are unloading and loading goods at the same time," he said, adding, "We need 75,000 trucks to distribute basic goods."

“We unload the basic goods in the shortest time and we do not have to worry about the supply of the basic goods”, the official added.

Earlier in May, former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had ordered the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) to take the necessary measures to accelerate the clearance of basic goods deposited at the country’s customs.

According to IRICA Deputy Head Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi, in a meeting of the government economic coordination headquarters, some problems and issues were raised regarding the clearance of goods in the country’s customs, and a report was presented to the president.

Following the mentioned meeting, Rouhani issued a decree ordering to investigate and resolve the mentioned problems and also agreed with the IRICA and Industry Ministry’s proposals in this regard.

MA/MA