TEHRAN – As announced by a provincial official, 8.67 million tons of products valued at $2.291 billion were exported from Khuzestan province, in the southwest of Iran, during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22).

Behrouz Qarehbeygi, an official with the province’s customs department, named steel ingot, LPG, agricultural products, and petrochemicals as the major exported items, and Kuwait, Afghanistan, India, Iraq, and Qatar as the main export destinations.

He further announced that 5.443 million tons of goods worth $3.301 billion were imported to the province in the first five months of this year.

The official named corn as animal feed, soybean meal, MDF and fabric as the main imported products, and Brazil, Canada, Ukraine, India and Australia as the major sources of imports.

According to the data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil exports during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year reached $19.3 billion.

Based on IRICA data, Iran exported about 55.9 million tons of non-oil goods valued at $19.3 billion in the mentioned five months, registering an 8.55-percent decline in value and a 26.56 percent rise in terms of weight, IRNA reported.

According to the IRICA, the main reason for the decline in the country’s export value in the mentioned period is the decrease in the global price of petrochemical products which account for a big share of the Iranian export basket.

As reported, the import of goods in the five months of this year also reached 14.4 million tons worth $24.2 billion, indicating a 7.49 percent growth in value and a 2.17 percent increase in weight, year on year.

The average value of each ton of exported goods was 346 dollars and the average customs value of each ton of imported goods was 1,677 dollars in the mentioned five months.

Major export destinations of the Iranian non-oil goods were China, Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India during the said time span.

The mentioned five countries accounted for 75.13 percent of the weight and 74.77 percent of the value of Iran’s total exports in the five months of this year.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates was the top exporter to Iran in the mentioned five months, followed by China, Turkey, India, and Germany.

MA