TEHRAN- Khorasan Razavi Province, in northeast of Iran, has exported 1.451 million tons of commodities valued at $734 million during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21), according to a provincial official.

Mohammadreza Mesforoush, the head of the province’s Industry, Mining and Trade Department, said that the seven-month export indicates 30 percent fall in terms of weight, and 21 percent drop in terms of value, compared to the figures for the same period of time in the past year.

He mentioned types of iron or steel rods, pistachios with fresh or dried skin, tomato paste, industrial tallow, flooring, saffron, chicken meat, and uncooked or cooked potatoes as the major exported products, and Afghanistan, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Hong Kong, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Spain, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan as the main export destinations during the said time span.

The official further said that 92,000 tons of commodities worth $210 million have been imported to the provinces in the first seven months of this year, which were 43 percent and five percent less than that of the previous year, in terms of weight and value, respectively.

He named mobile phones, cotton, cola essence, oil, potassium chloride, raw silk, coffee, wire and cable connectors as the main imported items, and the UAE, Uzbekistan, China, Turkey, India, Germany, South Korea, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan as the major exporters of goods to the province in the said time span.

Iran has exported 65.5 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $18.2 billion during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year, registering a 17.5-percent fall in terms of weight and a 23-percent decline in terms of value compared to the figures for the previous year’s same period, according to the data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

Iraq with $4.8 billion, China with $4.4 billion, the UAE with $2.2 billion, Turkey with $1.4 billion, and Afghanistan with $1.3 billion of imports from Iran were among the country’s top export destinations during this period.

In the first seven months of this year, some 19.3 million tons of commodities worth $20 billion have been imported into the country, of which 13.8 million tons were basic goods.

China with $5.1 billion, the UAE with $4.7 billion, Turkey with $2.2 billion, India with $1.2 billion, and Germany with $1 billion of exports to Iran were the top exporting nations to the Islamic Republic.

MA/MA