Dramatic Growth of Iranian Goods Smuggling to Neighboring Countries

For many years, smuggling goods into Iran was common practice, but for the past few months reverse smuggling has been taking place. Rice, tea, tomato paste, tires and cigarettes are among popular smuggled goods. However, the most popular commodity is fuel.

On Monday, December 24 (January 14), the news website “Trade News” published a report on goods smuggling from Iran. At the beginning of this report it states: “Countries that were once sources of goods smuggled into Iran have now become destinations for imported goods and even domestically produced Iranian goods.”

The report goes on to discuss goods that are popular among smugglers: sugar, paste, rice, fish, eggs, oil, legumes and many other goods that enter Iran from abroad at the exchange rate of 4,200 tomans.

The largest volume of smuggling goes to Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Persian Gulf countries, Armenia, Georgia and Pakistan.

Trade News writes: “Goods that traders face numerous challenges in importing are now being smuggled to neighboring countries with minimal difficulty. This has caused shortages of some essential goods in the country, a clear example being medicine. Medicines that the government is forced to import are these days being exported to neighboring countries at very low prices.”

Cheap Currency, a Serious Problem

Qasemali Hasani, Secretary General of Food Product Bankers, told Trade News that the exchange rate of 4,200 tomans has caused Iranian goods to be purchased cheaply and sold abroad at several times the price. He emphasized that Iran’s annual tea consumption is 120,000 tons, but this amount has doubled because smugglers buy tea in Iran at 16,000 to 20,000 tomans per kilogram and sell it abroad at 120,000 to 160,000 tomans.

According to Hasani, large quantities of Iranian tea have been smuggled to Turkey in recent months.

The Secretary General of Food Product Bankers said that Iranian cigarettes, which cost 7,000 tomans per pack inside the country, are sold in Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan for more than 21,000 tomans per pack.

Hashani emphasized that most goods are smuggled through travelers, peddlers and human carriers.

Trade News, citing “an informed source” at the Anti-Smuggling Headquarters, wrote: “Tomato paste is also being exported from our country by the truckload.”

Fuel; The Most Important Smuggled Commodity

According to this informed source, fuel has the highest level of smuggling.

The newspaper “Ettela’at” also reported that 11.5 million liters of fuel are smuggled from Iran daily. Of this figure, 85 percent is gas oil and the remainder is kerosene, fuel oil and gasoline.

HamidReza Dehghani Nia, spokesperson for the Anti-Smuggling Headquarters, also told Iran’s state television network two that gas oil plays an important role in fuel smuggling.

According to Dehghani Nia, seizures of smuggled fuel in the first half of 1397 (2018) showed approximately 62 percent growth compared to the same period last year. He stated that “based on Persian Gulf FOB prices” approximately 5.5 million dollars worth of fuel smuggling occurs daily.

Dehghani Nia emphasized that the largest volume of smuggling occurs through the borders of Sistan and Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces.

Source: DW