TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s toy industry has remarkable capacity for boosting the country’s exports and foreign currency revenues said the head of Iran Toy Association.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily, Gholamreza Dizaji, added Iran is definitely capable of increasing its share of the international toy market in light of its enormous capacity in the production of petrochemicals, which constitute the major part of the raw materials required by the industry.

“We have a young workforce in this field who has excellent ideas and can contribute significantly to improving the status of this industry [nationally and internationally]. This is because diversity and design are the main elements of this industry. In addition, our neighboring states would welcome our toys enthusiastically given our cultural proximity to them.”

He put at $300 billion the toy industry’s global turnover in 2019, adding China had the biggest share of this market by generating $60 billion in revenues, followed by India, the US, Japan, and Indonesia.

Dizaji said in 2019, the industry’s exports fetched India and the US $36 billion and $32 billion respectively.

He predicted that by 2023, the country’s income through toy exports would witness a 4.5-percent growth.

Describing as meager Iran’s present share of the international toy market, Dizaji said the country’s annual toy imports stand at $150 million.

He added domestic products meet close to $15 billion of the country’s total need for toys.

The association’s chief put Iran’s annual toy exports at $4 million, saying neighboring states, particularly Iraq, are among the customers of Iranian toys.

Turning to the cultural importance of toy exports, he noted that any product exported from one country to another carries a cultural message with itself, let alone toys that are directly associated with the educational and cultural issues pertaining to children.

Dizaji said the domestic toy industry’s organized and concentrated development began following the establishment of Iran Toy Association in the year to March 2019.

He blamed unrestrained imports as the main factor slowing the domestic toy industry’s development over the past years.

“Iran’s low per capita toy consumption is the main problem of the domestic toy industry. It amounts to, at most, $10 dollar per annum in Iran; while the global average amounts to $33 per year. The figure is more than $400 annually in countries such as Australia and Britain.”

Dizaji said the number of major toy producers in Iran is close to 250 units, of which 126 have become members of the Iran Toy Association.