Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
Iran’s wheat exports indicate a rise by 1,317 percent in terms of weight and 724 percent in terms of value year-on-year during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Jan. 20), Iran’s deputy agriculture minister, Abdolmehdi Bakhshandeh, said.
The country exported 236,000 tons of wheat, worth $84 million in the period, Bakhshandeh said, the agriculture ministry reported.
Bakhshandeh further said that the Islamic Republic exported 4.7 million tons of agricultural products during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.
He added that the value of exported agricultural products accounted for $4.542 billion during the 10-month period.
The agricultural products shared 4.5 percent of Iran’s overall non-oil exports in terms of volume and 12.3 percent in terms of value, respectively, Bakhshandeh said.
Agronomic products topped the list of agricultural exports with 62.4 percent share in terms of volume, followed by horticultural products (22.9 percent) and livestock (11.8 percent), the official added.
In terms of value, horticultural products ranked first with 48.6 percent share, followed by agronomic products (24.8 percent) and livestock (16.6 percent), he said.
Iran exported 1.1 million tons of horticultural products, worth $2.208 billion, 2.9 million tons of agronomics, worth $1.125 million, 558,000 tons of livestock, worth $754 million and 90,000 tons of fishery products, worth $327 million in the 10-month period, according to Bakhshandeh.
He added that pistachio ($972 million, 109,000 tons), saffron ($225 million, 185 tons), date($191 million, 194,000 tons), apple($142 million, 347,000 tons) and grape($138 million, 91,000 tons) topped the list of Iran’s agricultural exports in terms of value.
Exports of dairy products amounted to $517 million, tomatoes (fresh or chilled) to $268 million, and potatoes (fresh or chilled) to $213 million in the period, Bakhshandeh said.
A report by Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) put the value of Iran’s agricultural exports in the 10-month period at $3.181 billion or 5 percent less, year on year.
The volume of the exported agricultural products was 3.38 million tons in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, 13 percent less in comparison to the same period of the preceding year, according to the TPO data.