Iran's non-oil exports nears $21 billion

Iran exported non-oil goods worth $20.92 billion since March to August, accounting for more than 61 million tons of shipments, head of the Iran Customs Administration Foroud Asgari said.

According to Asgari, exports slipped 6% in value year-on-year. By comparison, imports reached $23.02 billion for 15.21 million tons of goods.

Petrochemical products remained the backbone of outbound trade. Iran shipped 21.88 million tons of such products worth $8.64 billion.

Natural gas, liquefied propane, bitumen, liquefied butane and methanol ranked among the top exported items.

On the import side, raw gold, corn feed, sunflower seed oil, rice and soybeans were the most significant commodities.