Domestic Apparel Market Replete With Contraband

Close to $7 billion worth of foreign apparel and shoes are bought in Iran every year, about $3 billion to $4 billion (almost 50%) of which are contraband, the chairman of the Association of Iran Textile Industries said.

“The lion’s share of these smuggled products enter the country through customs offices across the country,” Mohammad Morravej Hosseini was also quoted as saying by IRNA. 

The estimate of the director general of Textile, Apparel and Leather Industry Organization, affiliated to the Industries, Mining and Trade Ministry, is even bigger, putting the share of smuggled products in the Iran’s import market for apparel at 90%.

Golnar Nassrollahi added that China, Turkey, India, the UAE, South Korea and Taiwan are the main origins of apparel exports to Iran.