TEHRAN, Iran, Oct.16
Trend:
Iran's clothing export has been reduced to near zero due to the coronavirus pandemic while domestic sales have declined between 40 to 60 percent due to overpricing, said a clothing producer.
"Iran's clothes are only being exported to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria via border transaction which is very insignificant and traded by local currency," said Mehdi Rahbari, Trend reports citing Mehr News Agency.
"Difficulty in supplying basic material for clothing production and the issue of banking are some of the reasons that caused the halt of export. Due to banking problem exporters are not able to receive the money from banks that led to stagnation in the clothing industry," he noted.
According to Rahbari, the sale of Iranian clothing in the domestic market had reduced as well due to the increase in prices, concerns over coronavirus, and the decline of people's purchase power.
"The primary price of basic material and machinery for clothing industry has increased four times in current Iranian year (started March 20, 2020) compared to the last Iranian year (started March 21, 2019) which weakened production. The capacity of producers has been reduced to one fourth while their working capital is not sufficient to as two years ago," he added.