Financial Tribune - Why can’t Iran turn into an exporting superpower in the Middle East? Mohammad Reza Modoudi, the caretaker of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, believes Iran’s export performance is hobbled by the absence of strong exporting companies, insufficient production and lack of transparency and information on exported goods that enjoy comparative advantage.

Referring to the need to diversify exports, the official was quoted as saying by the Persian daily Iran that “investment in improving Iran's export competitiveness has been poor and the same inattention has limited the number of the country’s exported goods”.

According to IRNA, more than half of Iran’s non-oil exports actually consist of gas condensates, petroleum-driven products and petrochemicals that are either directly or indirectly linked to the oil industry.

Oil is still Iran’s so-called “export identity card” despite efforts made over the past many years to wean the country’s economy off petrodollars and shift it toward non-oil exports. With its relatively higher added value, non-oil exports are of greater importance.