TEHRAN- The value of non-oil export from Golestan province, in the northeast of Iran, rose 37 percent during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Septemebr 22), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, a provincial official announced.

Darvish-Ali Hassan-Zadeh, the head of the province’s Industry, Mining and Trade Department, said that 259,000 tons of non-oil goods worth $141 million were exported from the province in the six-month period of this year, with a 52-percent growth in weight, year on year.

He named ironware, eggs, polystyrene, cheese and other dairy products, fish food, and polyethylene compound as the main exported items, and Turkmenistan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Romania, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Armenia, and Romania as the major export destinations.

As previously announced by the official, the value of export from Golestan province increased by 26 percent in the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20), as compared to the preceding year.

He said that non-oil commodities worth $235 million were exported from the province to 33 countries in the previous year.

As announced by the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), Iran exported 67.7 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $24.144 billion in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year.

Mohammad Rezvanifar said that the export of non-oil commodities in H1 increased by 29 percent in terms of weight.

The official put the country’s value of six-month non-oil trade at $54.6 billion.

He said the value of the Islamic Republic’s non-oil trade in the first half of the current Iranian year increased by 4.84 percent compared to the same period last year.

In terms of weight, the country’s foreign trade reached 82.3 million tons which was 23.78 percent more than the figure for the previous year’s first half.

As the IRICA head announced, 17.6 million tons of goods valued at $30.443 billion were imported into the country in the said period, indicating an 11.62-percent rise in terms of value, and a 6.89 percent increase in terms of weight, year on year.

The average value of each ton of exported goods in the first six months of the current year was $356 and the average value of each ton of imported goods was $1,729.

Iran's top export destination during this period was China with $6.9 billion worth of imports from the Islamic Republic, followed by Iraq with $4.5 billion, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with over $3.0 billion, Turkey with $2.4 billion, and India with $1.1 billion.

Liquefied natural gas, liquid propane, and liquid butane were the top exported items in the said six months.

Meanwhile, the country’s top five sources of imports in the first half of the current year were the UAE with $9.0 billion, China with $8.8 billion, Turkey with $3.3 billion, Germany with $1.1 billion, and India with $987 million worth of imports.

Corn, smartphones, soybeans, sunflower seed oil, and rice were the top imported items in the period under review.

MA