The government has purchased 81,000 tons of fresh tea leaves worth 6.92 trillion rials ($21 million) from local farmers since the beginning of the current fiscal year on March 21.
The figure shows a 15% decline in weight compared with the corresponding period of last year, the head of Iran Tea Syndicate said last week.
"Around 66% of the purchased tea leaves were of top quality,” Sadeq Hassani was quoted as saying by Young Journalists Club.
Every year, the government buys strategic crops, including tea, wheat, sugarbeet, barley, cotton boll and oilseeds, from local farmers at guaranteed prices to control prices in the domestic market and fill its strategic reserves.
The official estimates that purchases will reach 130,000 tons by the end of the harvest season, which is 4% less than last year.
A total of 137,000 tons of fresh tea leaves worth 7.6 trillion rials ($26 million) were harvested in Iran in the last fiscal year (March 2021-22), showing a 3% and 48% rise in weight and value respectively compared with the previous year, according to the head of Iran Tea Organization.
Habibollah Jahansaz added that last year’s production increased because of favorable weather conditions, government support in granting cheap loans and higher guaranteed purchase prices.
“A total of 5 million tons of tea are produced globally every year and Iran is currently the world’s 12th biggest cultivator. Iranian tea is among the finest produced in the world and is pesticide-free, as there are no pollutants or residue chemicals affecting its quality and taste,” he said.
There are 28,000 hectares of tea plantations in Iran, 22,000 hectares of which bear yields, according to Iran Tea Organization figures.
More than 55,000 farmers earn their living from tea cultivation in Iran’s northern provinces, especially Gilan and Mazandaran. Some 90% of Iran’s tea plantations are located in Gilan Province.
Lahijan in eastern Gilan is Iran’s tea production capital.
The crop undergoes three harvests a year: spring harvest that starts in late April, summer harvest that begins early June and the last one is in autumn and starts late September.
A total 3,376 tons of Iranian tea worth $3.28 million were exported to 20 counties during the March 21-May 21. Over the same two-month period, 12,623 tons of tea worth $62.83 million were imported,” Hassani said.
Iran's Tea Association puts domestic demand for tea at 120 tons per annum.
The first tea harvest combine made in Iran was recently unveiled and production lines have been set up for large-scale industrial production, according to the head of Agricultural Mechanization Expansion Center.
“The tea harvest combine has a 74-horsepower engine and can reap yields from around 2 hectares of farms per day. The machine makes tea production cost-effective for farmers, as it reduces production expenses by 60% per hectare,” Kambiz Abbasi was also quoted as saying by IRIB News.
The official noted that high wages and low harvest have always posed problems in tea production, both of which can be solved using the new combine.
