TEHRAN- Non-oil commodities worth $2.885 billion were exported from Khuzestan province, in the southwest of Iran, during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22), an official with the customs department of the province announced.

Behrouz Qareh-Beygi put the weight of exported commodities at 10.561 million tons, and said the six-month export indicates a 20-percent fall in terms of value, and a 35-percent growth in terms of weight, year on year.

He named petrochemicals, agricultural products, steel, construction materials, mechanical and electronic devices, aquaculture and food as the main exported items and United Arab Emirates, Iraq, China, Southeast Asia, Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan as the major export destinations.

Qareh-Beygi also announced that 6.737 million tons of non-oil goods valued at $4.172 billion were imported to the province in the first half of the present year.

As previously announced by the official, non-oil commodities worth $6.584 billion were exported from Khuzestan province during the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20).

Qareh-Beygi put the weight of exported commodities at 17.55 million tons, with a seven-percent growth year on year.

He named petrochemicals, agricultural products, steel, construction materials, mechanical and electronic devices, food and fishery as the main exported items, and the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, China, Southeast Asia, Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan as the major export destinations.

The official further announced that 18.021 million tons of non-oil goods worth $10.677 billion were imported to the province in the previous year, with a 12-percent drop in weight, while a five-percent rise in value, as compared to the preceding 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