By Azernews

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

China is the top export destination of Iranian non-oil products, Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) has said.

"China, Iraq, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey and Afghanistan were the five major export destinations of Iranian non-oil products while China, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, India and Germany were the five leading exporters of goods to Iran during the mentioned time [March 21-November 23, 2019,]" IRICA has reported.

During this period, Iran exported $27 billion of non-oil commodities, non-oil exports was 88 million tons, which is 16 percent higher than the same period of 2018.

Tehran imported 22 million tons of non-oil goods worth $28.3 billion during this period. It means a 1.5-percent rise in weight and 4.8 percent fall in value compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Earlier, Deputy Industry Minister of Iran Hossein Modares Khiabani said that the ministry is planning to increase to $50 billion the value of Iran’s non-oil exports to its 15 neighbors.

“Our goal is to be able to meet five percent of our neighboring countries' needs, which would amount to more than $50 billion a year considering the total imports of all the 15 countries which is at least $1 trillion annually,” he said in August 2019.

He expressed hope that the mentioned goal would be realized before the Iranian calendar year of 1400 (which starts in March 2021), saying that the Institute for Trade Studies and Research and also Trade Promotion Organization are currently developing detailed plans to achieve this goal.

IRICA previously noted that the value of Iran’s non-oil exports stood at $44.3 billion in the previous Iranian year, while $42.6 billion worth of commodities were shipped into the country.

Based on the data published by Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO), the value of trade with the neighboring countries stood at over $36.5 billion in the past Iranian calendar year, which is about 41 percent of the country’s total non-oil trade in the mentioned time span.

Increasing non-oil exports to the neighboring countries is one of the major plans that Iranian government is pursuing in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21).

Iran shares border with fifteen countries, namely the UAE, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Oman, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.