Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) chief Mehdi Mirashrafi said on Friday that Iran’s foreign trade over the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20) grew by 47% compared with the previous year’s corresponding period.
He said that Iran traded some 50.8 million tons of commodities worth $29 billion with other world countries during the four-month period, to post a 47% growth in terms of value and a 21% increase in terms of weight in comparison with the same period from the previous year.
The country exported 38.3 million tons of non-oil products valued at $14.3 billion which showed a 27% increase in terms of weight and a 65% growth in terms of value, the official said.
He said that China was the main destination for Iranian products during the mentioned period (with nearly 10 million tons of imports from the country valued at $4.3 billion), followed by Iraq, UAE, Turkey and Afghanistan as other top importers of Iranian products ranking second to fifth respectively.
Iran also imported some 12.5 million tons of commodities worth $14.5 billion in the period under review, posting 5% growth in terms of weight and 32% increase in terms of value, the official said.
He noted that basic commodities accounted for some 9.4 million tons of Iran’s total 12.5 million tons of imports.
The official said that the UAE was the number one exporter to Iran during the four-month period with 4 million tons of shipments worth $4.7 billion.
China, Turkey, Germany and Switzerland ranked as the second to fifth exporters to Iran following the UAE, with $3.1 billion, $1.5 billion, $563 million and $539 million worth of shipments to Iran respectively, Mirashrafi said.