Iran’s exports to EU see gigantic rise

Official figures show the volume of Iran’s non-oil exports to the European Union (EU) saw a gigantic increase over the first four months of 2017.

Figures – as reported by Iran’s IRNA news agency – showed that the value of Iran’s exports to the EU from January to April 2017 reached as high as €3.4 billion. This, IRNA added, was an increase of five folds compared to the same period last year when Iran’s exports to the Union stood at around €0.7 billion.

Other figures showed that the overall volume of Iran’s trade with the EU over the same period had reached around €6.5 billion – an increase of around 127 percent compared to last year when mutual trade had been recorded at below €3 billion.

To the same degree, EU exports to Iran rose by 44 percent from January to April at a total value of €3.1 billion. In 2016, the figure stood at €2.1 billion.

Reports earlier said industrial goods such as hot-rolled non-alloy iron, steel, non-alloy iron and steel in forms other than ingots top the list of Iran’s exports to the EU.  Other popular products include condensate, light oils and methanol.

Key consumers of Iranian goods traditionally are Spain, France, Greece and Italy.

Key items in the list of EU exports to Iran include machineries, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, transportation equipment, plastics, etc.

Germany is Iran’s largest trade partner in Europe.

Figures released last year showed that the value of trade between the two countries stands at around €3 billion, but officials on both sides have already voiced optimism that this could increase in the near future.