Page 25 - IRANRptOct21

Iran-UAE trade tops $7.3bn in first five Persian calendar months
Trade between Iran and Turkey up 53% in Q1
Iran’s exports to Russia and Azerbaijan show ‘robust’ gains
Iran’s trade with fellow Caspian Sea countries amounts to $2.5bn in 2020/2021 Persian year
The value of trade between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) topped $7.3bn in the five Persian months (ended July 22), according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).
Trade expanded by 54% in value and 24% in volume year on year, a spokesman for the organisation said.
The big uptick in trade partly occurred given the resumption of trade flows that were last year hindered by coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.
Of the trade, the UAE’s exports to Iran reached $5.391bn, up 157% y/y.
UAE enjoys such a major surplus in its trade with Iran in part due to Dubai port’s historical role as a re-export hub for Iran. It allows traders worried about sanctions to avoid specifying Iran as a final destination for goods.
The UAE’s exports to Iran in the five months comprised of mostly agri-food, including dried nuts, fruit and seafood.
Iran’s exports to the UAE grew 23% y/y to $1.912bn.
Trade between Iran and Turkey expanded by 53% y/y to $986mn in Q1, according to official statistics from Turkish statistical agency TUIK (aka TurkStat).
Iran’s exports to neighbouring Turkey amounted to $505mn, while imports from Turkey totalled $481mn.
The Iranian exports were dominated by oil products, gas and petrochemical products and the Turkish exports included substantial consignments of semi-finished textiles and plastics, TUIK said.
Trade between Iran and Turkey in the first quarter of last year was severely disrupted by border closures amid the impacts of the coronavirus crisis. Impacts of the pandemic are still being felt in trade exchanges between the two countries. For instance, Iran lately brought in a ban on tourist flights to Turkey, citing the resurgence of the coronavirus outbreak in the country seen since March.
Iran’s exports to Russia in the last Persian year (ended March 20) reached $504.6mn, marking a 10% y/y gain, according to the Iranian customs administration chief, as cited by Mehr news agency.
The figure for exports shipped to neighbouring Azerbaijan was $511.0mn, with an 18% y/y increase thereby recorded, added Ruhollah Latifi.
Of the 1.51mn tonnes of goods that Iran sent to Russia, 605,000 tonnes were consigned via Azerbaijan, he also noted.
The weight of goods exported to Azerbaijan was almost exactly 1mn tonnes. Of that figure, 396,000 tonnes went by land, with the rest sent by rail and the Caspian Sea.
Ruhollah was quoted as saying that the export data was robust considering the impact of the coronavirus crisis from early 2020.
Trade between Iran and other countries with a Caspian Sea coastline amounted to $2.5bn in the 2020/2021 Persian year (which concluded on March 20), IRNA reported Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) officials as saying on April 19.
Iran recorded a surplus of $117mn from the trade, conducted in a year hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its impacts such as border closures across the region for much of the 12 months. Trade conducted across the Caspian Sea continued largely unhindered but land border closures affected frontiers such as those between Iran and Turkmenistan and Iran and Azerbaijan.
Iran's exports to the Caspian Sea littoral states of Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan was reported as 3,125,70 tonnes with a worth
25 IRAN Country Report October 2021 www.intellinews.com