TEHRAN- Iran exported $128 million of watermelons in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-September 21), the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) reported.

As the IRICA has reported, the value of Iran’s agricultural products export increased by 26 percent during the first half of this year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

According to the IRICA report, the country exported 3.2 million tons of agricultural products worth $1.7 billion in the first half of the current year, also indicating 20 percent rise in terms of weight, year on 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 has 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.

The value of Iran’s total foreign trade including oil and technical engineering services reached $153.17.8 billion in the last Iranian calendar year.

MA