TEHRAN – The Deputy head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Qadir Qiafeh has said that the exports of non-oil products are one of the main agendas of the chamber, with a high significance attached to the exports of food products.

In an address to the International Food Commerce Conference in Tehran on Sunday, Qiafeh said that the global value of food industry exports stands at $9.5 trillion.

He stressed that Iran’s exports of food have registered a 5.3 percent increase over the past 12 years in terms of tonnage while the value of the country’s food exports has decreased by an average of 0.6 percent in the timespan.

Qiafeh noted that the Iran Chamber of Commerce supports holding food industry weeks in neighboring countries and main trade partners of Iran.

He also touched upon an upcoming presidential election on June 28, stressing that the private sector expects the next president to refrain from intervening in the pricing process.

The International Food Commerce Conference is being sponsored by the ICCIMA Commission of Food Industries.

Iran exported 1,562,000 tons of agricultural products worth $684 million since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20) to May 20, an increase of 28 percent in value year on year.

Agricultural exports also rose by 24 percent in terms of weight, the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Iran exported some 1,260,000 metric tons (mt) of agricultural products worth $536 million in the same period last year.

In terms of value, the main agricultural items exported in the mentioned period are apples worth $96.3 million, in-shell pistachios worth $74.1 million, watermelons worth $73.8 million, field tomatoes worth $50.3 million, and greenhouse tomatoes worth $44.7 million, the report added.

The statistics show that agricultural items account for about 6.66 percent of the total weight and 8.53 percent of the total value of Iran’s exports in the same period this year.

The value of Iran’s exports of agricultural and foodstuff products increased by 22.5 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), the spokesman of the International Relations and Trade Development Committee of Iran's House of Industry, Mining and Trade said.

According to Ruhollah Latifi, Iranian producers managed to export about $6.3 billion worth of the mentioned products in the said year.

As reported, agro-food products accounted for 12.8 percent of the country’s total non-oil exports in the previous year.

Iraq was the top destination for Iran’s agro-food products in the mentioned year importing $1.986 billion worth of the said items. The Arab neighbor accounted for 31.5 percent of the total exports of food and agricultural products from Iran.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) stood in second place, importing $751 million of the mentioned products, followed by Russia with $521.5 million.

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