Some 228,000 tons of commodities worth $271 million were exported via Tamarchin border crossing, located in Piranshahr County in West Azarbaijan Province, during the two months to May 20 to register a 48% and 102% growth in tonnage and value respectively compared with last year’s corresponding period.
According to the supervisor of West Azarbaijan Customs Offices, Tohid Azarbod, 61,000 tons of the total figure worth $71 million pertained to West Azarbaijan’s exports while the remaining 167,000 tons worth $200 million were exports from other Iranian provinces.
A total of 701,000 tons of commodities worth $2.52 million were imported via Tamarchin during the same period, Azarbod told IRNA.
Tamarchin border crossing is one of Iran’s gateways to Iraqi Kurdistan region.
West Azarbaijan Province exported 1.27 million tons of goods worth $1.8 billion in the last Iranian year that ended on March 19, indicating a 30% decline in tonnage and a 30% rise in value compared to the year before, he added.
Moreover, 1.55 million tons of commodities worth $2.5 billion from other provinces were exported from West Azarbaijan last year.
A total of 579,000 tons of commodities worth $848 million were imported via West Azarbaijan Province’s customs offices last year, up by 36% and 57% in tonnage and value respectively YOY.
West Azarbaijan Province’s customs offices earned 6.69 trillion rials ($38.22 million) in revenues last year, up by 64% YOY.
About 8.1 million tons of goods worth $3.8 billion were exported from Iran to Iraq through the Iraqi Kurdistan Region during the last fiscal year, according to the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
“The exports account for 42% of Iran’s total exports to Iraq in terms of value and for over 31% in terms of tonnage during the period under review,” Rouhollah Latifi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
Parvizkhan border crossing had a share of more than 3 million tons worth $1.4 billion, followed by Bashmaq with $1.12 billion and Tamarchin border crossing with $754 million.
Iran exported more than 25.68 million tons of goods worth $8.99 billion to Iraq last year.
“Iran exported over 870,000 tons of goods worth $259 million to Iraq through the Iraqi Kurdistan Region during the first month of the current fiscal year [March 20-April 19],” Latifi added.
Iraq is the biggest destination of Iran's exports among its neighboring countries.
After the spread of the new coronavirus, Iraq closed all its border crossings with Iran and trade between the two countries was restricted to border crossings with the Kurdish region.
However, Mehran border crossing reopened earlier this month, IRNA quoted Omar al-Waeli, the head of Iraq's Border Ports Authority, as saying.
According to the official, the border is open for commercial exchanges for two days each week, taking health protocols into account.
Located in Ilam Province, Mehran has for long been the busiest border between Iran and Iraq.
There is no other crossing open between Iran and Iraq at present. That is to say Shalamcheh, Chazzabeh and Khosravi frontiers remain closed for commercial exchanges.
Yet, Iran's crossings into the Iraqi Kurdistan (Tamarchin, Parvizkhan and Bashmaq) have been open all along. The crossings of Siran Band and Sardasht-Kileh opened recently.
Notably, sending trucks to border crossings of Parvizkhan and Bashmaq has been banned until further notice due to the long line of trucks waiting there to cross into the Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Mohsen Yazarlou, a local official of Golestan Province.
Secretary-General of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce Hamid Hosseini said last month that between 700 and 800 trucks carrying Iranian goods cross into the Iraqi Kurdistan border from Iran per day.
