Around 2.02 million tons of agricultural and food products worth more than $1.58 billion were exported from Iran during the first three months of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21), to register a 22.2% growth in value compared with the same period of last year.
The growth indicates an all-time record high, based on a report released by the National Agriculture and Water Strategic Research Center, citing the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration's data.
Agrifood exports accounted for 7.3% and 13.6% of the total volume and value of Iran's non-oil exports in Q1 (27.88 million tons worth $11.61 billion) respectively, the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture reported.
The exports mainly included fruits worth $343 million, vegetables worth $306 million, milk and dairy products worth $160 million and saffron worth $77.5 million, accounting for a 21.6%, 19.3%, 10.1% and 4.9% share of the total value of agrifood exports respectively.
Iraq, Afghanistan, the UAE, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Germany and India were the biggest export destinations in a descending order, as around 89.3% of agrifood exports went to these eight countries.
Each ton of agrifood export was valued at $783 on average while each ton of exported non-oil products in Q1 was priced at an average of $417.
> Imports Down 11.4%
The import of agrifood products during the period under review stood at more than 4.72 million tons valued at close to $2.54 billion, which shows an 11.4% decrease in value compared with the corresponding period of preceding year.
The volume of purchases accounted for 56.4% and 22.6% of the total volume and value of Iran’s non-oil imports in Q1 (8.37 million tons worth $11.25 billion) respectively.
The main imported agrifood products included corn ($442 million), rice ($375 million), soybeans ($373 million), vegetable oils ($191 million), red meat ($174 million), different types of fruit ($147 million), barley ($135 million) and different oilseed meals ($113 million), accounting for 17.4%, 14.8%, 14.7%, 7.5%, 6.9%, 5.8%, 5.3% and 4.5% of all agrifood imports during the three months respectively.
The biggest exporters to Iran were India ($337 million), Switzerland ($343 million), the UAE ($178 million), the UK ($169 million), Brazil ($141 million), the Netherlands ($88 million), Pakistan ($81 million), Russia ($79 million), Turkey ($73 million), Germany ($38 million), Malaysia ($37 million) and China ($37 million).
The above-mentioned countries accounted for nearly 63% of Iran's agrifood imports.
Each ton of agrifood imports was valued at around $537 while each ton of imported non-oil products over the same period averaged at $1,344.
Iran recorded an agrifood trade deficit of $955 million in Q1, which shows a 39% improvement year-on-year.
