Iran Agrifood Trade Deficit Narrows

EghtesadOnline: Iran recorded an agrifood trade deficit of $3.64 billion for the 11 months to Feb. 19, 2019, which shows a 7.1% rise year-on-year.

News ID: ۷۴۷۰۷۱

15 April 2019

More than 6.38 million tons of agricultural and food products worth over $5.85 billion were exported from the country during the period to register a 1% increase in value compared with last year's corresponding period.

The figures in the latest report have been released by the National Agriculture and Water Strategic Research Center, which draws on data provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.

Agrifood exports accounted for 6% and 14.5% of the total volume and value of Iran's non-oil exports of 105.9 million tons worth $40.07 billion respectively over the period under review, the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture reported.

According to Financial Tribune, the exports mainly included fruits worth $1.34 million, vegetables worth $1.18 billion, milk and dairy products worth $555 million, saffron worth $319.2 million and fish and shrimps worth $297 million, accounting for 23%, 20.4%, 9.5%, 5.5% and 5.1% of the total value of agrifood exports during the period respectively.

Iraq, Afghanistan, the UAE, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Vietnam, Turkmenistan and Germany were the biggest export destinations in a descending order, as about 80% of Iran’s agrifood exports went to these nine countries.

Each ton of agrifood exports was valued at $922 on average, which is 144% more than the price of each ton of non-oil exports ($378) over the period.

Imports of agrifood products during the same period stood at 18.17 million tons valued at more than $9.44 billion, which shows a 2.3% decline in value compared with the corresponding period of the preceding year.

These accounted for 62.8% and 24.5% of the total volume and value of Iran’s total non-oil imports of 28.92 million tons worth $38.5 billion respectively.

The main imported agrifood products during the period included corn ($1.89 billion), rice ($1.35 billion), soybeans ($1.08 billion), vegetable oils ($882 million), red meat ($683 million), oilcake ($557 million),  barley ($536 million) and fruits ($364 million), accounting for 20%, 14.3%, 11.5%, 9.3%, 7.2%, 5.9%, 5.7% and 3.9% of all agrifood imports during the nine months respectively.

The above-mentioned products accounted for 78% of the total value of agrifood imports over the period.

The biggest exporters to Iran were the UAE ($890 million), India ($797 million), the Netherlands ($742), Switzerland ($734 million), the UK ($725 million), Singapore ($663 million), Russia ($525 million), Turkey ($499 million), Brazil ($381million), Germany ($221 million) and Pakistan ($152 million).

The above-mentioned countries accounted for nearly 67% of Iran's total agrifood imports.

Each ton of agrifood imports was valued at around $520, which was 61% less than the price for each ton of imported non-oil products over the same period ($1,331).