A senior Iranian trade official said the country is expected to meet a non-oil exports revenue target of $55 billion in the calendar year to March 2023.
Alireza Peymanpak, who serves as head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, said that engineering services exports would account for nearly 10% of Iran’s total exports over the next Iranian year, Press TV reported.
Peymanpak said that Iran plans to increase shipments to countries in Southeast Asia and Africa to meet the target.
Figures by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) show that Iranian exports topped $45 billion in the 11 months to late February, an increase of nearly 40% from the similar period over 2020-2021.
Engineering services exports accounted for a bulk of the growth reported in Iran’s non-oil exports over the period with IRICA figures suggesting that earnings from those services had nearly quadrupled year on year.
The export target set for next calendar year would be an increase of 14.5% from figures projected for the year to March 2022.
Peymanpak said that Iran will dispatch more commercial attaches to its embassies around the world to boost exports. He said the number of those attaches will more than triple next calendar year to cover 30 missions.
Iran has reported increased activity in non-oil trade sector since the United States imposed sanctions on the country’s crude sales in 2018.
Petrochemicals have accounted for a bulk of Iranian exports in recent years thanks to a major boom reported in the sector because of government’s expansion strategies.
Iran has also benefitted from increased shipments of minerals to East Asia while food exports to neighbors have increased consistently since 2019.
