Russia’s Agricultural Trade with Iran Up 20% In 9M 2025

Agricultural trade between Russia and Iran grew 20% in the first nine months of this year, according to Russia’s Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut and Iran’s Minister of Agriculture Jihad Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh. Russia also resumed exports of mineral fertilizers to Iran.

Lut and Ghezeljeh also discussed prospects for cooperation in veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance. They addressed collaboration in scientific and technical fields – in particular, plant breeding and seed production, livestock farming, veterinary vaccine production, implementing advanced agricultural technologies and agricultural education.

Lut said that “Iran is one of Russia’s most important and biggest partners in the agricultural field.”

Russia’s main agricultural exports to Iran include grains, oilseeds, and processed products like sunflower and rapeseed oils, with recent growth in dried lentils and beginning exports of soybean oil. The countries also collaborate on other products, such as mineral fertilizers, with Russia receiving fruits, vegetables, and crustaceans from Iran in return. Iran has replaced large parts of the European import market in terms of available Russian supermarket vegetable produce.

About 60% of Russia-Iran bilateral trade is in the agricultural sector. A 20% agricultural trade increase for 2025 would mean that mutual agricultural trade for the year can be anticipated to be valued at about US$3.5 billion.

Russia and Iran signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement earlier this year, which came into effect in early October. Iran also has a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, while infrastructure and logistics ties between the two countries are also rapidly improving with the continued development of the International North-South Transportation Corridor.

The two countries are shortly to commence a new joint shipping line, a measure that will additionally increase bilateral non-energy trade.

In 2024, bilateral trade between Russia and Iran reached approximately US$4.8 billion, a 16.2% increase from the previous year. This growth is driven by closer economic ties, a strategic partnership agreement, and increased cooperation in areas like infrastructure, energy, and transit. The two countries are also working to overcome financial barriers, such as integrating their payment systems, an issue Russia is also discussing with India.

Russia-Iran bilateral trade can be expected to reach a total of about US$5.85 billion for 2025 with this growth trend set to continue.