Tehran Hosts ‘Agri Show 2023’

The 7th International Exhibition of Agriculture and New Irrigation Systems, also known as “Iran Agri Show 2023”, opens in Tehran on Jan. 9.
More than 430 domestic and foreign companies, including from India, China and Spain, are showcasing their products and services related to agricultural machinery, inputs and greenhouse crops at the four-day event held at Tehran’s International Fairground, IRNA reported.
Latest data released by the Agriculture Ministry show Iran exported 4.86 million tons of agricultural and food products worth $2.99 billion during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Nov. 21).
The figures indicate a decrease of 11.02% in tonnage and 11.8% in value compared with last year's corresponding period. 
Pistachio topped the list of exports in terms of value with $229.9 million. Tomato was the second major agricultural export product in terms of value with $193.28 million, followed by milk powder with $192.54 million, watermelon with $174.35 million and dates with $129.04 million.
In terms of tonnage, watermelon topped the list with 799,720 tons, tomato with 413,500 tons, followed by onion, shallot and garlic with 268,760 tons, apple with 260,330 tons and Persian melon with 259,070 tons.
Imports stood at 15.92 million tons worth $11.63 billion during the same period, indicating a 21.34% fall in weight, but a 4.32% rise in value year-on-year.
Corn worth $2.03 billion had the biggest share of imports in terms of value, followed by rice worth $1.62 billion, wheat worth $1.34 billion, soybeans worth $1.25 billion and different kinds of oil worth $1.57 million.
In terms of tonnage, corn topped imports with 51.01 million tons, followed by wheat with 3.09 million tons, followed by soybeans with 1.61 million tons, rice with 1.33 million tons and unrefined sugar with 1.02 tons.
The export and import volumes indicate that Iran recorded an agrifood trade deficit of 11.06 million tons in tonnage and $8.63 billion in value during the period under review.
Iran exported 8.5 million tons of agricultural and food products worth $5.23 billion in the fiscal 2021-22 and 8.83 million tons worth $6.21 billion in the year before.
Iran’s 15 neighboring countries were the destination of 89% of the country’s agricultural and food exports in terms of tonnage during the last Iranian year (March 2021-22), according to a customs expert, Rouhollah Latifi.
“Iraq alone accounted for 37% of Iran’s total exports,” he was quoted by as saying IRIB News.
Latifi added that more than 65% of Iran’s imports are agrifood products.
Neighbors imported 7.6 million tons from Iran’s total 8.5 million tons of agrifood exports last year.
Iraq was the biggest importer with 3.238 million tons. Among neighboring countries, Iraq was followed by the UAE with 1.74 million tons, Afghanistan with 832,000 tons, Turkey with 269,000 tons, Azerbaijan with 207,000 tons, Armenia with 81,000 tons, Turkmenistan with 203,000 tons, Russia with 634,000 tons, Pakistan with 507,000 tons, Qatar with 190,000 tons, Oman with 171,000 tons, Kazakhstan with 120,000 tons, Kuwait with 73,000 tons and Bahrain with 3,122 tons. Exports to Saudi Arabia were insignificant.