Iran-Russia agricultural trade nears $2bn in H1
Agricultural trade between Iran and Russia reached nearly $2bn in the first half of 2026, with Russia posting a trade surplus of 40.8%, Russian Federal Customs Service data showed.
Russia exported 3.2 million tons of agricultural products worth $1.4 billion to Iran between January and June, while its imports of Iranian agricultural products stood at 495,700 tons worth $588.9 million, Mehr News Agency reported on Sunday.
Russia’s agricultural trade surplus with Iran was $811.1mn during the period, as Russian agricultural exports accounted for about $1.4 billion of the nearly $2 billion trade, compared with $588.9 million in Iranian exports to Russia.
Russia’s main agricultural exports to Iran included corn, barley, wheat, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil.
Iran exported fresh peppers, lettuce, pistachios, kiwifruit and shrimp, fish and other aquatic products and crustaceans to Russia.
The figures were discussed in Moscow on Sunday at a meeting between Sergei Dankvert, head of Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision, and Vahid Salehi, Iran’s deputy agriculture minister and head of the country’s Veterinary Organization.
The officials discussed ways to expand agricultural trade as well as veterinary and sanitary requirements governing shipments between the two countries.
The Iranian official called for higher exports of fishery products to Russia and for an expansion of the list of Iranian producers authorized to export to the Russian market.
Dankvert said imports of Iranian fishery products into Russia were possible if Russian requirements were met, including “full control of the production process” and state supervision of exported products.