Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
Iran exported 1,668 tons of banana, worth $1.287 million, during the first 11 months of the last fiscal year (ended March 20), Iran’s deputy agriculture minister, Abdolmehdi Bakhshandeh, said.
Iran’s banana exports registered a rise by 1,531 percent in terms of value, year-on-year, Bakhshandeh said, according to the agriculture ministry.
The volume of the exports also witnessed an increase by 1,555 percent, the official said.
Meanwhile, banana was among the top 10 goods, Iran imported in the first 11 months of the last fiscal year as well.
Iran imported $483 million worth of goods in 11-month period from March 20, 2017 to Feb. 20, 2018, the country’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPOI) said earlier.
The figure is equal to 1 percent of Iran’s overall imports in the period. Iran’s banana imports registered an increase by 17 percent, year-on-year.
In total, Iran exported 5.3 million tons of agricultural products, worth $5.1 billion during the first 11 months of the last fiscal year.
The agricultural products shared 4.5 percent of Iran’s overall non-oil exports in terms of volume and 12.2 percent in terms of value, respectively, Bakhshandeh said,
Agronomic products topped the list of agricultural exports with 61.4 percent share in terms of volume, followed by horticultural products (24.3 percent) and livestock (11.4 percent), the official added.
In terms of value, horticultural products ranked first with 48.8 percent share, followed by agronomic products (24.9 percent) and livestock (16.1 percent), he said.
Iran exported 1.3 million tons of horticultural products, worth $2.475 billion, 3.3 million tons of agronomics, worth $1.264 billion, 606,000 tons of livestock, worth $816 million and 102,000 tons of fishery products, worth $369 million in the 11-month period, according to Bakhshandeh.
He added that pistachio ($1.1 billion, 119,000 tons), saffron ($286 million, 206 tons), date ($216 million, 219,000 tons), apple ($195 million, 4667,000 tons) and grape ($149 million, 99,000 tons) topped the list of Iran’s agricultural exports in terms of value.
Iran’s date exports increased by 20.5 and 19.5 percent in terms of volume and value, respectively, meanwhile the country’s apple exports witnessed a 39-percent increase in terms of volume and 85 percent in terms of value year-on-year, respectively.
Exports of dairy products amounted to $552 million, tomatoes (fresh or chilled) to $301 million, and potatoes (fresh or chilled) to $241 million in the period, Bakhshandeh added.
Iran’s wheat exports increased by 1,371 percent in terms of weight and 766 percent in terms of value year-on-year during the same span of time. The country exported 380,000 tons of wheat, worth $98 million in the period, he added.
A report by Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) put the value of Iran’s agricultural exports in the 11-month period at $3.814 billion or 4 percent less, year on year.
The volume of the exported agricultural products was 3.814 million tons in the first 11 months of the last fiscal year, 10 percent less in comparison to the same period of the preceding year, according to the TPO data.
Another report provided by Iran’s industry ministry says that export of agricultural products stood at 3.802 million tons, which is 7.3 percent less as compared to the 11-month period of the preceding year.
The value of Iran’s agricultural exports stood at $2.973 billion or 3.8 percent less, year on year, according to the ministry’s data.