Jolfa

Jolfa is a small town located in Iran is home to 56,000 people living on 35 kilometers of urban and rural areas. Some 18,000 students study in the regional schools and 450 students attend the universities from allover the country. The employed population of the city work in service, administrative, transport, customs, banks and insurance as well as in other trade and urban activities.The majority of rural population are farmers. With the increasing level of education and the popularity of mechanical agriculture, there are increasing numbers of young, qualified people entering the work force.

Jolfa is one of the most important border towns of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Customs facilities and YJR railway of Jolfa have been designed to accommodate custom duties, warehousing, cargo releasing and transportation of three million tones of commodities per year. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, all imports and exports of Iran with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Eastern Europe and Scandinavian countries were mainly carried out through Jolfa.

During the year 1990 and 1991 the volume of cargo exchanges in Jolfa border amounted to 2.69 and 2.37 million tons respectively, forming over 10 percent of the country's imports. Upon closing the Jolfa-Yerevan railway due to dispute over the region of Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan republics cargo exchnages through this border dropped sharply. However, during the recent years, an avrage of 150,000 tons of cargo annually have been cleared from Jolfa border for destination of Turkey, Azerbaijan republic, Nakhchevan, Armenia and vice versa through Jolfa main roads. Upon the cessation of hostilities and continuation of settlement talks and opening of Iran Caucasus railway, it is expected that Jolfa border town will revive its past significance to be not only one of the most important cargo exchange borders among Iran, Caucasus and Russia, but also turn to one of the greatest cargo transit routes from Persian Gulf and Central Asia to Caucasus, Russia and vice versa.