The official also announced that the country’s textile export has experienced a 26-percent rise in terms of weight during the past year.

She said 80,000 tons of textile floor coverings (like carpets and rugs) worth $417 million constituted the lion’s share of the exports in the previous year.

Iranian textile manufacturers imported 397,000 tons of textile raw materials worth $1.12 billion during the past year, which indicates 32 percent fall in terms of value and 35 percent drop in terms of weight year on year, Mehrabi further underlined.

According to the official, Iran’s textile and clothing industry needs some $4 billion to supply raw materials, equipment and machinery, $2.5 billion of which is imported.

As previously announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil exports stood at $44.3 billion in the previous year while $42.6 billion worth of commodities were shipped into the country.

IRICA data also show that the value of Iran’s non-oil trade stood at $4.87 billion during the first Iranian calendar month of Farvardin (March 21-April 20, 2019).

As reported, the worth of non-oil trade during the first month of this Iranian calendar year fell 13.5 percent compared to that of the same month of the past year.

Although, the country recorded a non-oil trade surplus of $213 million in Farvardin of this year.

Iran exported 8.52 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $2.54 billion during the first month, registering a 7.66-percent increase in weight, but an 18.25-percent decline in value compared to the first month of the previous year.

Monthly non-oil imports amounted to 2.08 million tons worth $2.33 billion, up 7.75 percent in weight, but down 7.65 percent in value year on year.

Meanwhile, based on the latest data published by Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), the value of Iran’s trade with the neighboring countries stood at over $36.5 billion in the past Iranian calendar year, that is about 41 percent of the country’s total non-oil trade in the mentioned time span.

Iran shares border with fifteen countries, namely the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Oman, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

The country plans to launch 15 mega export projects to identify more target markets, the acting head of TPO has recently announced.

Mohammadreza Modoudi said with the implementation of these projects, which mainly focus on the markets of neighboring countries, identifying professional trade and promoting export of non-oil commodities will be put on agenda, Mehr news agency reported.

The official further referred to the $1.7 billion positive trade balance in the country’s non-oil trade in the past Iranian calendar year and said this positive balance was achieved through cooperation with the private sector.