TEHRAN- Iran’s worth of agricultural, livestock and fishery products as well as foodstuff exports stood at $805 million in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-May 21), according to an official with the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

Arezoo Ghaniyoun said that 1.75 million tons of the mentioned products were exported during the two-month period.

Saying that 1.966 million tons of such products worth $894 million had been exported from the country in the first two months of the previous year, the official said that the export indicates a 10-percent fall in value and a 11-percent drop in weight year on year.

She mentioned Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Russia as the major export destinations of the products.

According to Ghaniyoun, paying more attention to the issue of quality exports of agricultural products, purposeful planning for professional marketing in more target markets and maintaining and stabilizing current markets, as well as paying attention to proper transportation and proper packaging can boost agricultural exports.

Regarding the share of agricultural exports in the total non-oil exports of the country in the first two months of the present year, she said: "The share of agricultural exports in the two months of this year is nine percent in terms of value and 10 percent in terms of weight.”

The data released by the IRICA show that the value of Iran’s export of non-oil products increased 37 percent during the first two months of the current year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Iran exported 17.014 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $8.516 billion in the said two months, also registering a 1.6-percent rise in weight as compared to the first two months of the previous year, the data indicate.

Based on the IRICA data, Iran traded over 22.196 million tons of non-oil products worth $16.631 billion with other countries in the mentioned period.

The Islamic Republic imported 5.182 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $8.115 billion in the first two months of the present year, with a 24-percent growth in value and a 3.37-percent decline in weight year on year.

Among the country’s non-oil export destinations, China was the first, importing $2.720 billion worth of products, the United Arab Emirates was the second with $1.502 billion worth of imports, Iraq the third importing $1.312 billion, Turkey the fourth with $766 million of imports, and India the fifth importing $290 million worth of products in the mentioned period.

Iran’s top sources of non-oil imports in the mentioned two months were China, Turkey, India, and Russia.

Considering the amounts of exports and imports in the mentioned two months, the country's foreign trade balance became $401 million positive.

MA/MA