TEHRAN – Handicrafts exports from Iran hit a record high over the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-July 22, 2017) with 45.4 percent growth in contrast to the same period a year earlier, a tourism official says.

The growth has also been tagged as the highest in exports of non-oil products from the country, IRNA quoted Pouya Mahmoudian as saying on Wednesday.

The value of handicrafts exports from Isfahan province topped any others in the country with 334 percent of growth, added Mahmoudian who presides over exports department of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization.

She made the remakes during the opening ceremony of the 18th Isfahan handicrafts exhibition.

The value of handicrafts exports, excluding traditional jewelry and suitcase trade, added up to $237m in the past [Iranian calendar] year, witnessing 36.3-percent year-on-year hike, Mahmoudian told the Tehran Times in August.

She expected that Iran’s annual exports of handicrafts to reach $1b by the end of the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (March 2021).

Traditional ceramics, pottery, handwoven cloths as well as precious and semi-precious gemstones were amongst the most handicrafts exported, she said, adding Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany were the main importers of Iranian handicrafts with the U.S. and the UK recently resumed their imports.

Based on the data released by Iran’s Costumes Administration, the country’s non-oil exports during the four-month period totaled $13.459 billion.

CAPTION: Photo shows a collection of Iranian potteries that are meticulously inlaid with enamel

AFM/MG