TEHRAN- The value of Iran’s export to Africa rose 36 percent in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Novemebr 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, the vice president of Iran and Africa Merchants Club Ruhollah Latifi said on Saturday.

According to Latifi, Iranian traders exported over 1,844,601 tons of commodities worth $990.569 million to African countries in the mentioned eight-month period, IRIB reported.

The official put the total Iran-Africa eight-month trade at 1.914 million tons valued at $1.056 billion, of which the share of Iran’s import was 69,031 tons valued at $66 million.

The trade between Iran and 38 African countries increased by 10.5 percent in terms of weight and 39 percent in terms of value in the said period, Latifi said.

The imports from Africa also increased by 77 percent and 98 percent in terms of weight and value, respectively.

The official named South Africa, Mozambique, and Sudan as the main export destinations and Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa as the major sources of imports for Iran among the African countries in the first eight months of the present year.

Latifi noted that last year trade between Iran and Africa reached $1.250 billion with a 100 percent growth, and considering the current trend of trade with the African continent the figure is expected to reach $1.7 billion by the end of the current year (March 20, 2023).

Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Alireza Peyman-Pak has said the country is taking the necessary steps to increase annual trade exchanges with African countries to $5 billion by the Iranian calendar year 1404 (begins in March 2025).

Peyman-Pak said the trade with the mentioned countries is expected to reach $2.5 billion by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2023).

Referring to the preparation of the country's trade development roadmap at the beginning of the work of the 13th administration, the official said: "In this roadmap, major factors including exports and the share of different sectors are specified, and in the case of Africa, the priorities and targets for trade with different countries and the requirements for reaching these targets are determined."

Peyman-Pak put the share of African countries in Iran's export basket at $1.2 billion, saying: "Africa's annual imports amount to about $580 billion and our share of this figure is still small despite all the efforts. We have managed to export $1.2 billion to this market."

He further mentioned the capacities of the mentioned continent for the export of technical and engineering services and said: "The total exports of technical and engineering services to Africa is currently $300 billion; But our share last year, despite a slight increase reached only $200 million, which is still small.”

According to the TPO head, in order to increase the level of trade with Africa certain infrastructure including transportation and direct shipping lines, as well as proper legal, commercial, monetary, and banking relations must be provided, and TPO has been recently focusing on providing such requirements to facilitate trade with Africa.

“To solve the transportation problems, four countries have been selected in East, West, South, and North of Africa, to launch air and shipping lines,” he said.

EF/MA