“In the last five years, the total export of agricultural products and food industry to Iraq has reached 11 billion dollars, of which about 3.7 billion dollars are allocated to fruit and vegetables,” Farzad Pilten said on Tuesday.
“Iran's export products have been widely available in the market of agricultural products and food industry despite the fact that these products are produced in Iraq and the Iraqi government imposes prohibitions and tariffs and non-tariff restrictions on the import of some goods," he added.
Iraq is the second-largest importer of Iranian products. it follows China, which predominantly imports petrochemicals from the Middle Eastern country. Iraqi shipments from Iran focus predominantly on agricultural products, engineering services, construction materials, and energy, such as electricity and natural gas.
Iraq accounted for 9 billion of Iran’s $12.5 billion total exports in 2019.
The devastating economic impact of the coronavirus dealt a significant blow to trade volume between Iraq and Iran in 2020.
Iran fast became the regional epicenter and one of the world’s worst-hit countries by the pandemic after recording its first case in Qom in February of last year.
As cases of infection began to seep into Iraq – many of which were people who had returned from Iran – Baghdad began restricting travel, shutting its five main border crossings with its eastern neighbor in mid-March 2020.
Kurdistan did not follow Baghdad's lead, keeping all three of its major border crossings open. At times, the region closed the border crossings to tourists, though trade continued normally.
