18% Decline in Apparel Smuggling

About $1.8 billion worth of apparel were smuggled into Iran during the last fiscal year (March 2018-19) to register an 18.2% decline compared to the previous year's $2.2 billion, the industries minister said.   
“Apparel production has increased by 20% during the first nine months of the current Iranian year {March 21-Dec. 21, 2019],” Reza Rahmani was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
The minister noted that imports fell by 31% last year compared to the year before.
He added that the rise in production and the continued decline in imports show the country’s apparel industry is thriving and that it has the capacity to meet domestic demand.
Hassan Nilforoushzadeh, secretary-general of Iran Textile Industry Association, told Fars News Agency last year that 98% of Iran’s textile industry is owned by the private sector, and if it wasn’t so, it would have been banished altogether.
“Our main plight is the huge amount of contraband items that enter the country. It seems that even the police can’t stop the smuggling. Other handicaps we deal with are money transactions, foreign exchange and transportation problems caused by the reimposed US sanctions,” he said.
Nilforoushzadeh noted that the textile industry has created close to 600,000 direct jobs.   
Iran’s domestic apparel production is worth $5.5 billion per annum.