Iran Tea Exports at 12.6k Tons Since March

EghtesadOnline: Iran exported 12,600 tons of tea to 34 countries since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2018).

News ID: ۷۸۴۴۷۵

12 January 2019

Based on the H1 tea export prices, this amount of export is estimated to be worth around $16.8 million.

According to Habibollah Jahansaz, the head of Iran Tea Organization, India, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Australia, France, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan and Georgia were the main export destinations for Iranian tea over the nine-month period, ILNA reported on Friday.

This year’s tea harvest season ended on Oct. 22 and a total of 112,000 tons of fresh tea leaves worth more than 2.2 trillion rials (around $15 million) were bought from farmers, according to Financial Tribune.

“Despite the frost that set in during the spring and the water shortage we faced this year, production saw a 4% increase in weight compared with last year. The dried and processed tea amounted to 20,600 tons,” he said.

The government has a guaranteed purchase system in place for many crops, including tea, to build up its strategic reserves and control prices in the domestic market.

Tea undergoes three harvests a year: the spring harvest that starts in late April, the second in summer begins early June and the last one is in autumn and starts late September.

Tea is cultivated in Iran’s northern provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran where 50,000 families earn their living from tea farming on more than 25,000 hectares. Close to 95% of tea orchards in Iran are rain-fed.

Iran also imports tea, mainly from India, Sri Lanka and Kenya.

Iranians consume around 105,000 tons of tea annually.