More than 3.67 million tons of agricultural products worth 3.85 billion dollars were exported from Iran during the eight months up to November 21, registering a more than 9% increase in value compared with the corresponding period of last year.
Imports of agricultural products during the same period stood at around 12.57 million tons worth more than 7 billion dollars, registering a year-on-year increase of 23% in value.
The Financial Tribune reported that the growing trade deficit is due to a fall in the export of apples and pistachios, while there was an increase in the import of staple foods such as rice, sunflower oil, palm oil, soybean, bananas, sugar and more.
In the same eight month period, nearly 155,000 tons of apples worth 65 million dollars were exported from Iran, indicating a 26% and 7% fall in volume and value respectively. The decline in apple exports was attributed to the fact that almost all stored apples were exported last year and there was not much left in warehouses across the country.
The UAE, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, China, Qatar, Russia, the US, South Korea, Switzerland and France are the main export destinations for Iranian apples.
