Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 17
By Fatih Karimov – Trend
Only 30 percent of Iran’s textile industry’s capacity is active, the head of Association of Iran Textile Industries, Mohammad Moravvej Hosseini, said.
He further said that stagnation and people’s low purchasing power are the main reasons behind the issue, Moravvej Hosseini said, IRNA news agency reported Nov. 17.
Iran’s textile industry has capacity to produce 800 million meters of garment per year, meanwhile the demand stands at over 1.6 billion meters, he said.
Moravvej Hosseini further said that only 30 percent of the Iran’s garment import comes through legal channels, adding that the remaining amount is smuggled into the country.
Earlier in March Golnar Nasrollahi, the general manager of Textile & Garment Department at Iran's Ministry of Industry said that only 10 percent of Iran's clothing imports is legal.
Iran's textile industry has capacity to produce 300,000 tons of clothing products annually, while the demand is 400,000-450,000 tons, and 90% of that is supplied via smuggling, Nasrollahi said.
She added that some $700 million worth of clothing was imported in Iran during 2014, of which only 10 percent was carried out legally through customs and free trade zones.
Moravvej Hosseini said on March 10 that during the first half of Iranian fiscal year, (March-September 2015) some $600 million worth of clothing was imported illegally only from Turkey.