The director general of Iran’s customs office, Mehdi Mirasharfi, on Saturday told Iranian state media that his country has increased its exports in the past eight months by 40 percent, noting that petrochemical products were the main export, accounting for 43 percent of total exports, by value.
China was the top importer of Iranian goods, largely buying petrochemicals.
“The five major export destinations of Iranian goods are China… worth $9.1 billion, Iraq… worth $6.1 billion,” followed by Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Afghanistan, state media quoted Mirasharfi as saying.
Iran’s economy and trade shrank drastically under the coronavirus pandemic and United States sanctions, but it has begun to improve. “Iran’s economy witnessed a moderate recovery in 2020/21 following more than two years of recession,” the World Bank reported last month, crediting COVID measures and rebounding oil production. The bank predicts “modest” growth.
Iraq’s main purchases from its neighbor are agricultural products, engineering services, construction materials, and energy, such as electricity and natural gas. Baghdad has received waivers from Washington allowing it to buy Iranian electricity and natural gas.
Earlier this year, Iran said they had exported $11 billion worth of food and agricultural products to Iraq in five years. In 2019, Iraq accounted for around $9 billion of Iran’s $12.5 billion in exports.
Travel and trade between the neighbours was hard hit by the coronavirus. Iran fast became the regional epicenter and one of the world’s worst-hit countries by the pandemic after recording its first case in Qom in February of last year. As cases of infection began to seep into Iraq - many of which were people who had returned from Iran - Baghdad began restricting travel, shutting its five main border crossings with its eastern neighbor in mid-March 2020. The Kurdistan Region at times closed its border to tourists, though trade continued normally.
