The first three months of this year’s Iranian calendar year exports from Iran’s agriculture increased to around $1.027 billion, which is an increase of 37 percent in comparison to the same time the previous year. Mohammad Sadeq Ghanadzadeh, Deputy head of the Iranian Trade Promotion Organization, highlighted an increase of 19 percent in the amount of exports as reported by IRIB. The most important exports were pistachios apples, watermelons and tomatoes as well as potatoes.

The development of trade relations between and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is regarded as an important factor in the increase in exports. Information obtained from the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) showed that during the initial two weeks of the Iranian season, Iran exports 1,562,000 tonnes of agriculture produce valued at $684 million. This was up by 28 percent year-on-year. The period witnessed an increase of 24 percent in volume of exports.

In particular, apples, in-shell watermelon and pistachios as well as field tomatoes, greenhouse tomatoes were ranked as the leading agricultural exports, in worth. They accounted for 6.66 percent of weight total, and 8.53 percent of the amount of exports from Iran during this period. In the previous Iranian calendar year saw the 22.5 percent rise in the value of exports of the food products and agricultural items, in the range of $6.3 billion as reported by Ruhollah Latifi from the Iranian House of Industry, Mining and Trade.

Food products from the agrofood sector accounted for 12.8 percent of Iran’s non-oil total exports in the year 2000 and Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, and Russia as the biggest importers of these items coming from Iran. Overall, the worth of the foreign trade Iran has that includes oil as well as engineering, reached $153.17.8 billion during the previous Iranian calendar year.

Source: tehrantimes.com