TEHRAN- Over 3.98 million tons of goods was exported from Yazd province, in the center of Iran, in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), which was seven percent more than the figure of its preceding year, a provincial official announced.

Mohammad-Hossein Salmani, the director-general of the province’s customs department, put the value of annual exports from the province at $380.258 million.

He named ceramic tiles, hydrocarbons, building glass, glassware, petrochemicals and agricultural products including pomegranate seeds, pistachios and pistachio kernels as the main exported items and Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Azerbaijan, Oman, Armenia, Turkey, Thailand, Kazakhstan, and India as the major export destinations.

The official further stated that 56,730 tons of commodities valued at $193.958 million were imported to the province in the past year, and named raw materials, spare parts, and machinery as the major imported goods.

As announced by the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil trade stood at $73 billion in the past year.

Mehdi Mir-Ashrafi also put the weight of non-oil trade at 146.4 million tons, and said that the figure shows a 25-million-ton annual decline, which is the result of sanctions and coronavirus pandemic.

Iran’s non-oil export was 112 million tons valued at $34.5 billion, and that of import was 34.4 million tons worth $38.5 billion in the past year, the official added.

Among the country’s non-oil export destinations, China was the first, with importing $8.9 billion worth of products, Iraq was the second with importing $7.3 billion, the United Arab Emirates the third with importing $4.6 billion, Turkey the fourth with importing $2.5 billion, and Afghanistan the fifth with importing $2.2 billion, Mir-Ashrafi announced, and named gasoline, natural gas, polyethylene, propane, and pistachio as Iran’s major exported products during the past year.

He further named Iran’s top sources of non-oil imports in the said time, as China with exporting $9.7 billion worth of products to the Islamic Republic, the UAE with $9.6 billion, Turkey with $4.3 billion, India with $2.1 billion, and Germany with $1.8 billion, respectively, and mentioned corn, cellphone, rice, oil meal and oil seeds, wheat, and raw oil as the major imported items.

MA/MA