January 17, 2025
The government has long had a policy of banning imports of the kinds of items that are made in Iran or that are such a luxury nature that revolutionaries are opposed to importing them.
Despite that, when the daily Hamshahri went over the detailed customs records for the first seven months of this Persian year, it found some very strange imports, such as baby diapers, which are made in Iran; but Iran imported some from Turkiye this year. Admittedly, the numbers were small only $19,115 worth of diapers made it into Iran. Ski poles were also among the listed imports.
Again, the numbers were small, but they are a luxury item. Some $33,226 worth of ski poles have been imported so far this year from China, the UAE and Slovenia. Then there are $262,551 worth of tennis balls imported from Turkiye, China and the UAE. Oddly, a total of $4.4 million worth of zippers and zipper components were imported from China, Turkiye and the UAE.
And a whopping $14.6 million worth of pencil sharpeners have been imported so far this year from 13 different countries, including China. China may make a frequent appearance on this list because China pays for its oil in Chinese currency and Iran finds itself stuck with a lot of yuan and may be desperate to find things to spend them on.
For example, how about the $49,377 spent on Chinese-made wheelbarrow tires. Another item that stuck out was $6.7 million worth of automatic dishwashers bought from Germany, Iraq, Turkiye, UAE and China despite the fact that Iran banned the import of household appliances in 2018. It is well-known that a huge volume of appliances is smuggled into Iran, but those listed in the customs records are legal imports of illegal imports!
