A total of 18,462 tons of goods worth $9.6 million were exported from Iran to Russia through a new customs corridor on a trial basis, according to the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
“The shipments were transported from Iran to Russia between June 30 and Aug. 22 using 1,199 waybills,” Alireza Moqaddesi was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
The exports accounted for 46% and 18.1% of the weight and value of Iran’s total fruit and vegetable exports during the period respectively.
Trade turnover between Russia and Iran from January-July amounted to $2.7 billion, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a recent statement.
"We note the progress in negotiations for a full-fledged free trade agreement between Iran and EEU [Eurasian Economic Union]. Four rounds of consultations have already taken place and we expect the desired result to be achieved as soon as possible. This will give additional impetus to bilateral trade and economic interaction, the volume of which continues to grow. Between January and July of this year, trade turnover amounted to $2.7 billion, which is 42.5% more than the volume of turnover in the same period of last year," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, News.am reported.
According to data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, Russia exported $1.7 billion worth of goods to Iran to account for 3.1% of Iran’s total imports in 2021.
In return, Russia imported around $1.1 billion worth of goods from Iran, accounting for 1.2% of Iran’s total exports last year.
Russia’s 2021 export to Iran increased by 56% and Russia’s import from Iran rose 15% in comparison with 2020.
About 66% of Russia’s total export value to Iran were cereals, mainly wheat.
The main product exported to Russia from Iran were pistachio, with the share of 9.1% in total exports.
Plan to Transit 10m Tons of Goods Along INSTC
Iran and Russia have agreed on details of a plan to transit 10 million tons of goods along the International North-South Transportation Corridor, the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development of Iran reported on Saturday.
The agreement was made during a meeting of the two sides’ transportation officials in Moscow on June 28 and 29.
The Iranian side was led by deputy minister of roads and urban development in transportation, Shahriyar Afandizadeh. He was accompanied by deputies and directors of the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran, Ports and Maritime Organization, and the Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company as well as representatives of private sector in marine and road transportation sectors.
The Russian side was led by deputy transport minister, Dmitry Zverev, who signed a protocol for the agreement with Afandizadeh.
A wide range of subjects related to transit and transportation cooperation were discussed during the two days of meeting, but the transit of 10 million tons of goods along the International North-South Transportation Corridor was the main topic of discussion.
INSTC is a major transit route designed to facilitate the transportation of goods from Mumbai in India to Helsinki in Finland, using Iranian ports and railroads, which the Islamic Republic plans to connect to those of Azerbaijan and Russia.
The corridor, which will connect Iran with Russia’s Baltic ports and give Russia rail connectivity to both the Persian Gulf and the Indian rail network, was high on the agenda of Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Qasemi during his recent visit to Moscow.
With the operationalization of the corridor, goods could be carried from Mumbai to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and further to Baku, Azerbaijan. They could then pass across the Russian border into Astrakhan before proceeding to Moscow and St. Petersburg, before entering Europe.
INSTC would substantially cut travel time for everything from Asian consumer goods to Central Eurasia’s natural resources to advanced European exports.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines recently piloted the multimodal transit of cargo along INSTC carrying goods from Russia to India, according to the head of Solyanka Port in the Russian city of Astrakhan.
“The consignments are two 40-feet containers of wood laminates weighing a total of 41 tons. The containers were loaded at St. Petersburg and are heading toward Astrakhan where they will be loaded again at Solyanka Port. They will then traverse the Caspian Sea to reach Iran’s Anzali Port where they are scheduled to be transported to Bandar Abbas port city in the south of the country via trucks. The two containers will then be dispatched to Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s largest container port,” Darioush Jamali was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official estimated that the transit of this first trial consignment, as part of collaboration between the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line Group’s representative logistic companies in Russia and India, will take less than 25 days.
“The shipments will be using one-way bill along their journey. We hope that this first transit on INSTC will lead to considerable revenues and boost transit and logistics in Iran, Russia and India,” he added.
Solyanka is one of the 15 ports located in Astrakhan’s Economic zone and is considered the busiest of them all. Some 53% of Solyanka Port’s shares belong to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.
The Russian port of Astrakhan is a hub for commercial activities of nearly 200 Iranian firms, making the port the largest center of Iranian economic activities in Russia.
Iran’s first House of Commerce was inaugurated in Astrakhan in October 2017 with the aim of boosting and facilitating trade between Iran and Russia.
Talks to Complete INSTC’s Missing Link
A Russian delegation of railroad officials met with the head of the Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company of Iran, Kheirollah Khademi, in Tehran last week to survey different aspects and opportunities in Russia’s cooperation for constructing the Rasht-Astara railroad.
During the meeting, officials from Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, as well as directors, experts, contractors and engineers engaged in the project were present, IRNA reported.
“If the financial resources are provided, Rasht-Astara railroad, which is a missing link along the International North-South Transportation Corridor, will be completed within three or four years,” Khademi said.
The official noted that INSTC links Northern Europe, Scandinavia and Russia, through Iran, to the littoral states of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, adding that the route is the cheapest and fastest transit route connecting these countries.
“The meeting was held because the inauguration of INSTC is very important to the two sides and we are surveying ways of expanding bilateral cooperation in the design, execution and determining of the route’s technical features,” he said.
