Iraq, UAE top importers of Iran goods

A cargo ship sails through the Shahid Beheshti Port in the southeastern Iranian coastal city of Chabahar, on the Gulf of Oman, during an inauguration ceremony of new equipment and infrastructure on February 25, 2019 [ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images]

Iraq and the UAE are the top Middle Eastern countries which import goods from Iran, the head of the Iranian Trade Development Organization, Hamid Zadboum, announced today.

Zadboum said the value of non-oil exports recorded a growth of 69 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (21 March to 20 July). Adding that Iran’s foreign trade amounted to $29 billion in the first quarter.

He pointed out that the foreign markets that import the most Iranian goods are: China, which topped the ranking with $4.4 billion, followed by Iraq with $2.8 billion, the UAE with $1.6 billion, Turkey with $921 million, and Afghanistan with $728 million.

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Ten per cent of Tehran’s imports are from the UAE, while it exports about 15 per cent of all goods through the UAE, according to official statistics.

The head of the Iran-UAE Joint Chamber of Commerce, Farshid Farzanegan, previously revealed that the value of trade between the Emirates and the Islamic Republic stands at $15 billion, with the hope that they will rise to $30 billion by 2025.

The UAE is, however, Iran’s second largest trading partner with the volume of exports to the Emirates amounted to the equivalent of $3.3 billion, and the volume of imports at $6.3 billion. Thus the total balance of trade exchange stands at about $9.6 billion. Only China tops this, the Iranian Chamber of Commerce revealed.

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