TEHRAN – the head of Iran’s Birjand Chamber of Commerce has said Iran and Afghanistan have the capacity to boost trade exchanges to $5.0 billion, the portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) reported.

“Considering the stabilization of political conditions in Afghanistan, there is no risk in trade with this country, and by participating in the country’s construction projects, it is possible to develop bilateral exchanges up to five billion dollars,” Alireza Khameh-Zar said.

Earlier this month, Iran’s commercial attaché in Afghanistan said the Islamic Republic’s non-oil export to the neighboring country registered a 41 percent growth in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20, 2024) compared to the same period last year.

Iran’s export of non-oil goods to Afghanistan increased by $102 million in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year, showing a 41 percent hike compared to last year’s corresponding period, Hossein Roustaei said.

He added that Afghanistan is Iran’s sixth export target market and that Afghanistan is one of the export target countries with the highest positive balance of trade with Iran.

The official put the volume of Iran’s export of non-oil goods to Afghanistan from March 19 to May 22, 2024, at $350 million, showing a 41 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

In this period, Iran exported 181,000 tons of non-oil goods to Afghanistan, Roustaei noted.

Light oils, oil products, oil gases, ingot, iron, steel, compound, polyethylene, light- and heavy hydrocarbons, foodstuff, urea, tomato, tree apples, cement, types of polyethylene, potatoes, fresh fruits and vegetables, orange and infant formula were the main products exported from Iran to the neighboring country, he stated.

Iran imported more than $7.0 million of products from Afghanistan between March 19 and May 22, 2024, he added.

The Islamic Republic exported over $1.8 billion of non-oil products to the neighboring country in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 19, 2024), registering a 13.6 percent growth compared to a year earlier.

According to Roustaei, the country exported 3,414 tons of non-oil products worth $1.871 billion to Afghanistan in the previous year.

The official noted that Iran’s annual non-oil exports to Afghanistan also rose by 28 percent in terms of weight compared to the same period last year.

Increasing the number of trade and business delegations, facilitating the activities at border crossings, increasing working hours at the customs offices, holding joint economic commission meetings between the two countries in Tehran, holding business conferences in Kabul, Herat, Tehran, and Mashhad, and holding an exhibition of the export potentials of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Herat were among the most important factors in the rise in the export of non-oil goods from Iran to Afghanistan, he emphasized.

Oil products, iron and steel ingots, natural gas, light and heavy hydrocarbons, iron, steel, foodstuff, types of polyethylene, fresh fruits and vegetables, and cement were among the main products exported from Iran to Afghanistan in this period, Roustaei added.

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