More than 2.4 million tons of agricultural and food products worth $2.08 billion were exported from Iran during the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 21-July 22), to register a 25.2% growth in value compared with last year's corresponding period.
This 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 latest data.
Agrifood exports accounted for 6.4% and 13.5% of the total volume and value of Iran's non-oil exports in the four-month period (37.4 million tons worth $15.45 billion) respectively, the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture reported.
The exports mainly included fruits worth $422 million, vegetables worth $345 million, milk and dairy products worth $226 million and saffron worth $98.5 million, accounting for a 20.2%, 16.5%, 10.8% and 4.7% share of the total value of agrifood exports respectively.
Iraq, Afghanistan, the UAE, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Turkey, India, Germany, Oman and Qatar were the biggest export destinations in a descending order, as around 81% of agrifood exports went to these 10 countries.
Each ton of agrifood export was valued at $870 on average while each ton of non-oil exports in the first four months of the current year averaged $413.
The import of agrifood products during the period stood at 6.98 million tons valued at more than $3.68 billion, which shows a 1.5% decrease in value compared with the corresponding period of the preceding year.
The volume of purchases accounted for 59.7% and 24.3% of the total volume and value of Iran’s non-oil imports over the period (11.55 million tons worth $15.17 billion) respectively.
The main imported agrifood products included corn ($719 million), rice ($675 million), soybeans ($492 million), vegetable oils ($255 million), red meat ($247 million), different types of fruit ($193 million), barley ($1 66 million) and oilseed meals ($146 million), accounting for 19.5%, 18.3%, 13.4%, 6.9%, 6.7%, 5.2%, 4.5% and 4% of all agrifood imports during the four months respectively.
The biggest exporters to Iran were India ($624 million), Switzerland ($479 million), the UAE ($337 million), Singapore ($321 million), the UK ($292 million), the Netherlands ($203 million), Brazil ($188 million), Turkey ($148 million), Pakistan ($121 million) and Russia ($119 million).
The abovementioned countries accounted for nearly 77% of Iran's agrifood imports.
Each ton of agrifood imports during the period was valued at $534 while each ton of imported non-oil products over the same period averaged $1,314.
Iran recorded an agrifood trade deficit of $1.59 billion over the four-month period, which shows a 22.9% rise year-on-year.
