TEHRAN- As announced by a provincial official, commodities valued at over $270 million were exported from Zanjan province, in the northwest of Iran, during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20).

Mir-Hashem Seyed-Ahmadi, the director-general of the province’s customs department, put the weight of exported products at over 159 million tons and said the annual export shows 21 percent and 26 percent growth, in terms of value and weight, respectively.

The official further announced that 452 million tons of products valued at $411.2 million have been imported to the province in the previous year, indicating 19 percent growth in terms of worth, and 30 percent rise in terms of weight, on an annual basis.

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