A total of 22,723 tons of tea worth $29.5 million were exported from Iran during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Nov. 21), registering a 31.7% rise in value compared with the similar period of last year.
Iranian tea was exported to 23 countries with the main destinations being Uzbekistan, Germany, the UAE, Canada, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and India, IRIB News reported.
A total of 63,593 tons of tea worth $354.7 million were imported from nine countries during the same period.
A temporary ban has been placed on the import of tea and rice from India in a bid to balance Iran’s trade with India, according to Masih Keshavarz, secretary of Iran’s Rice Suppliers Commission.
“The ban will be lifted as soon as bilateral trade is balanced, or registers surplus,” he added.
The comments by Keshavarz came after an Indian English-language business daily The Economic Times reported that Iran has completely stopped signing new contracts for importing tea and basmati rice from India.
The report said a section of traders believes Iranian importers could be delaying purchases, as New Delhi and Tehran are working out a rupee trade settlement agreement.
The development will have an impact on the export of these commodities, particularly tea, as Iran imports around 30-35 million kg of orthodox tea and about 1.5 million kg of basmati rice from India every year, exporters said.
While tea exports to Iran had slowed down earlier, buyers from there “stopped registering new contracts from last week,” said Anish Bhansali, managing partner of Bhansali & Company, a leading tea exporter to Iran.
While basmati rice exporters are also facing the same problem, the impact would be less as basmati exports have risen on high demand and rise in prices of commodities globally since the Russia-Ukraine war.
A total of 116,000 tons of fresh tea leaves were produced in Iran’s three northern provinces this year, out of which 26,000 tons of processed tea were produced, according to the head of Iran Tea Organization.
“Iran’s domestic demand for tea stands at around 100,000 tons per year. Our annual production has been hovering between 25,000 tons and 30,000 tons for a few years now, as imports stand at between 60,000 and 70,000 tons every year,” Habibollah Jahansaz was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
According to Jahansaz, 5 million tons of tea are produced globally every year and Iran ranks the world’s 12th biggest cultivator.
“Iranian tea is among the finest produced in the world and is cultivated pesticide-free, therefore, there are no pollutants or residue chemicals affecting its quality and taste.”
There are more than 28,000 hectares of tea plantations in Iran, 22,000 hectares of which bear yields, according to Iran Tea Organization.
More than 55,000 farmers earn their living through tea cultivation in Iran’s northern provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran.
Some 90% of Iran’s tea plantations are located in Gilan Province.
The city of Lahijan is known as Iran’s tea production capital.
The crop 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.
