The deputy for commercial services at Iran’s Trade Development Organization says the country’s non-oil trade has fallen by about 30% in the first four months of this year.

Mohammad Sadegh Ganadzadeh cited war conditions and the blockage of maritime transport routes as the most important factors behind the drop in the country’s foreign trade. He then said that exports and imports decreased at roughly the same rate.

Ganadzadeh did not state a specific figure for the country’s foreign trade, but according to customs statistics, Iran had $34 billion in non-oil trade in the first four months of the previous year. Given the reported 30% decline, this figure has fallen to less than $24 billion in the same period this year.

He also said there is a gradual shift in foreign trade from land routes to the waters in the south of the country. This comes as Majid Reza Hariri, the head of the Iran–China Chamber of Commerce, recently warned about the continuation of the United States’ naval blockade against the Islamic Republic and said the cost of transporting cargo overland from China is four times the cost of sea transport.