Latest data from Iran’s Customs Administration (IRICA) shows the country has boosted its exports to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), just months after Tehran and the bloc began implementing a free trade agreement signed in December 2023.

IRICA figures cited in a Saturday report by the IRIB News showed Iran’s exports to the Russia-led EAEU reached $1.46 billion in the eight months to November 21, an 11% increase compared with the same period last year. Export volumes rose 10% to 3.888 million metric tons (mt) over the same period.

Shipments to Russia grew 12% in value and 9% in volume, while exports to Belarus jumped by more than half year-on-year in April–November, the data showed.

IRICA figures also indicated that Iran’s imports from EAEU, which includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Belarus, amounted to 5.5 million mt worth $3.217 billion in the first eight months of the current Persian year. That represents a 9% decline in volume but a 15% increase in value from a year earlier.

Imports from Russia rose 13% in value year-on-year in April–November, while shipments from Kazakhstan surged 84% over the same period.

Under a free trade agreement that took effect in May, Iran now enjoys tariff-free access for nearly 87% of its exports to EAEU member states. Before the deal, the two sides operated under a preferential trade arrangement signed in Armenia in June 2017.

That comes as Iran also signed an agreement during an EAEU Supreme Council meeting in Saint Petersburg in December last year to become an observer member of the bloc.