Iran’s exports to Iraq in the first four months of the current fiscal year (March 21-July 22) stood at $2.8 billion, Hamid Hosseini, member of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, told Fars News Agency.
According to the secretary-general of the joint chamber of commerce, Iran’s exports to Iraq stood at $2.34 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (March 21-June 21), registering a 54% growth year-on-year.
“Statistics show that last year [March 2020-21], Iran’s exports to Iraq accounted for 95% of bilateral trade,” Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi Shirazi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
“Exports to Iraq hit $7.4 billion last year, while imports stood at $131 million.”
Petrochemical and petroleum products with $2.7 billion had the highest share of exports in terms of value during the period.
The share of industrial products in total exports to Iraq stood at $1.75 billion, the agricultural and food industry’s share of exports was at $1.74 and that of minerals and mining industry hit $1.2 billion.
According to the official, 47% of Iran’s exports to Iraq are shipped through Kermanshah Province.
Kermanshah is one of the 31 province of Iran and has two official borders with Iraq and five active border markets.
According to director general of Arab-African office of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, a total of $11 billion worth of agrifood products have been exported to Iraq from Iran in the past five years, of which $3.7 billion pertained to fruit and vegetable.
From the fiscal 2016-17 to fiscal 2020-21, about 30% of total exports to Iraq consisted of agricultural and food products, including fruits and vegetables, dairy products, sweets and chocolates, cereals, nuts and dried fruits, flowers and medicinal plants, of which fruits and vegetables had the largest volume of export from this group.
“In the period under review, despite the formation of the production process for these types of products in Iraq and the application of prohibitions and tariff and non-tariff restrictions on the import of some goods by the Iraqi government, Iran's exporters of agricultural and food commodities have maintained a strong presence in Iraq,” Farzad Piltan was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Tomato, apple, watermelon, potato, onion, cucumbers and kiwi were the most important goods exported to Iraq from Iran during the period under review.