Iran earned $400mln from home appliances exports in year to March

Iran’s exports of home appliances earned the country some $400 million in the year to late March, industry figures show.

Secretary general of Iran’s Home Appliances Manufacturers Association said on Monday that rising exports of household appliances from the country is a sign the industry has progressed several years after it started almost from scratch.

“Exports over the last year were some $400 million which is a sign of better quality of products and parts in various types of home appliances that have been able to compete in international markets,” said Omid Fazelinia.

Industry figures showed that total output of home appliances in Iran had reached 19.5 million units in the year to late March, up by 18.2% from the previous year.

Fazelinia said targets introduced by the Iranian administrative government require the country's home appliances industry to further expand by 15% in the year to March 2025 to reach an output of 22.5 million units.

Iranian households relied on foreign brands, especially the South Korea-based Samsung and LG, for a bulk of domestic appliances they needed before 2019 when Iran came under US sanctions.

The country introduced a ban on imports of foreign brands of home appliances to help develop the budding domestic industry and to cut back on hard currency spending.

The ban also came amid Iran’s problems with South Korea over more than $7 billion of funds that had been blocked in two banks in the East Asian country because of US sanctions.

The funds were released to Iranian bank accounts in Qatar last year under an agreement mediated by the Arab country.

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