Trade with foreign countries stood at $52.852 billion in the first eight months of the current Iranian year (started March 21). Iran exported 56.844 million tons of commodities worth $24.605 billion during the said period, which shows a 7.7 percent rise in terms of weight and a 12.7 percent decline in terms of value, ISNA reported. Iron ore worth $909 million, methanol worth $728 million and oil tar worth $719 million were the major products exported during the period. Some $4.944 billion worth of gas condensates, $6.405 billion of petrochemical products and $13.256 billion of other items constituted the exported non-oil goods. The main export destinations were China, Iraq, UAE, India and Afghanistan with a value of $4.252 billion, $3.870 billion, $2.318 billion, $1.659 billion and $1.639 billion respectively.
About 18,925 million tons of commodities worth $28.247 billion were imported during the said period, which shows a decline of 30 percent and 22.7 percent in terms of weight and value respectively. The five major imported goods were rice ($1.610 billion), soya-oilcake ($1.057 billion), wheat ($ 751 million), corn ($745 million) and vehicles with a 1000-1500 cc cylinder ($634 million). During the period, Iran imported $5.854 billion worth of goods from UAE, which constitutes 21 percent of the whole imports, while China, India, South Korea and Turkey were next in line with $5.539 billion, $2.607 billion, $2.389 billion and $2.307 respectively.