TEHRAN – A jewelry industrialist said on Saturday that Iran stands 8th among the world’s gold jewelry exporters, putting the country’s total gold and jewelry exports in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2006) at 123 million dollars.
“Persian Gulf states are the main target markets for our gold jewelry,” Kurosh Goharbin, who chairs the Association of Gold Traders and Manufacturers, added, pointing to Italy, Thailand and Turkey as the main gold exporters in the world. On the situation of the domestic gold manufacturing industry, he said that some 70,000 industrial units across the country are involved in production, sales and distribution of gold jewelry. Knowing that Iran sits atop huge mineral reserves, including gold, foreign investors, especially Australians, Canadians and Britons, have been long seeking to enter Iran’s gold mining ventures.
