TEHRAN- Non-oil commodities worth $4.208 million were exported from North Khorasan province in the northeast of Iran during the first Iranian calendar month of Farvardin (March 21-April 21, 2025), the director-general of the province announced.

Hojjat Amani said that over 10,000 tons of non-oil goods were exported from the province in the mentioned month.

The export indicates 24 percent fall in value, and 33 percent drop in weight, as compared to the first month of the previous year, the official noted.

He named petrochemical products (urea fertilizer), steel products, and sodium hydroxide as the major exported items, and Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, and Uzbekistan as the main export destinations.

The official further announced that 500 tons of non-oil products worth $500,000 were imported to the province during the first month of the present year, with 30 percent fall in value, and 63 percent rise in weight, as compared to the first month of the past year.

He named rice and vanilla as the main imported items in the first month of this year.

As previously announced by Mohammad Karamianfar, who was the acting head of Industry, Mining and Trade Department of the province, the value of non-oil export from North Khorasan province increased by 41 percent in the past Iranian calendar year 1403 (ended on March 20).

He said that non-oil commodities worth $316 million were exported from the province in the previous year.

According to the official, most of the province's export goods last year included petrochemical products (urea, ammonia, melamine), steel products, cement, petroleum bitumen, agricultural products, polystyrene foam, and polystyrene tools.

He mentioned Iraq, Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Libya, and Somalia, as some of the countries to which the products were exported.

The official further announced that 16 countries were added to the province's export target countries last year, including Madagascar, Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Kuwait, Colombia, Djibouti, Kenya, the British Indian Ocean Territory, Indonesia, Malaysia, Tajikistan, Germany, Laos, Thailand and Bangladesh.

Karamianfar stated: “Also, during this period, seven export target countries were lost, including Jordan, South Africa, Italy, Tanzania, Taiwan, Serbia and Nigeria.”

He further announced that non-oil commodities valued at $40.4 million were imported to the province in the past year, falling 50 percent from the figure in the preceding year.

Most of the imported goods include rice and vanilla, which came from Pakistan and Mauritius, he added.

As previously announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), Iran’s non-oil foreign trade reached $5.8 billion in the first Iranian calendar month, with raw gold topping the list of imports at $583 million.

Iran traded 10.76 million tons of non-oil goods in the mentioned month, generating $5.798 billion in total value. This marked a 12 percent decline in weight and a 3.0 percent drop in value compared to the same period last year.

According to IRICA, exports accounted for 8.96 million tons worth $2.942 billion, while imports stood at 1.80 million tons valued at $2.856 billion.

Exports saw an 8.3 percent decline in volume and an 8.0 percent drop in value. In contrast, imports decreased by 26.4 percent in volume but rose by 2.3 percent in value, year on year.

The average customs value of exported goods stood at $328 per ton, a 0.47 percent increase from a year earlier. The average import value was $1,587 per ton, up 39 percent year on year.

Petrochemical products accounted for 15 percent of the total export volume and 20.6 percent of the export value.

Top exported goods in Farvardin included liquefied propane ($189 million), petroleum bitumen ($182 million), liquefied butane ($154 million), iron and steel billets ($120 million), and methanol ($110 million).

China was the leading destination for Iranian goods, importing $997 million worth of products, followed by Iraq ($401 million), the United Arab Emirates ($395 million), Turkey ($189 million), Afghanistan ($143 million), Oman ($140 million), and Pakistan ($124 million).

These seven countries received 80 percent of Iran’s non-oil export volume and accounted for 81 percent of its value.

Raw gold was the largest import item in the mentioned month at $583 million, followed by animal feed corn ($175 million), rice ($91 million), soybean meal ($75 million), and soybeans ($66 million).

The UAE remained Iran’s largest import partner with $859 million in goods, followed by China ($768 million), Turkey ($538 million), Germany ($87 million), the Netherlands ($75 million), India ($69 million), and Pakistan ($43 million).

These seven countries supplied 83 percent of Iran’s total import volume and 85 percent of its import value during the period.

MA