“Our exports mainly included vegetable, minerals, food, textile and plastic products that were mainly shipped to Russia, Azerbaijan Republic, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Afghanistan and Iraq,” Abolqasem Yousefinejad, superintendent of Gilan Customs Administration, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official noted that imports into the province over the same 10-month period stood at 1.43 million tons worth $799.43 million, indicating a YOY increase of 32% and 7% in volume and value respectively.
“The imports mainly included essential goods such as grains, livestock and poultry feed, meat, vegetable oil, soybean meal and paper pulp, which were mostly purchased from the UAE, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Turkey and Ecuador,” he added.
Yousefinejad said Gilan’s customs office accounted for 25% and 37% of the total weight and value of Iran’s overall exports to the Eurasian Economic Union respectively over the period under review.
According to Gilan Governor General Arsalan Zare’, agricultural exports account for more than 40% of total exports from the northern province.
“Most of Gilan’s agricultural products are exported as raw material. There is a shortage of processing and packaging industries in the province, which deprives Gilani farmers and businesspeople of gaining higher profits,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official stressed that by setting up processing and packaging industries, using modern irrigation methods and increasing crop yields, the agriculture sector has the capacity to create 2,700 more jobs in Gilan.
With over 438,000 hectares of agricultural land, the northern province’s output of agronomical, horticultural, livestock and seafood products stands at 3 million tons worth 172 trillion rials ($710 million) per year.
It is one the main producers of rice, tea, hazelnuts, peanuts, olives, silk cocoons, bony fish, kiwis and cottonwood in Iran.
One of the 31 provinces of Iran, Gilan lies along the Caspian Sea, west of the province of Mazandaran, east of the province of Ardabil and north of the provinces of Zanjan and Qazvin. It borders the Republic of Azerbaijan in the north and Russia across the Caspian Sea.
The province is home to two major ports of Astara and Anzali.