Iran exported about 7,500 tons of tea worth $11.3 million during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Nov. 21, 2017), registering a 6% decline in weight but an 8.6% rise in value compared with the similar period of last year.
The figures indicate that the price of Iranian tea has gone up in the international markets, ISNA reported.
“During the harvest season from June to October, the government purchased about 108,000 tons of fresh tea leaves worth 2.03 trillion rials ($50 million) from local farmers, registering a 23% decline compared with that of last year,” the head of Iran Tea Organization said.
Mohammad Vali Rouzbehan also blamed bad weather and low precipitation for the decline in tea production.
“A total of about 24,000 tons of processed tea have been produced from the purchased leaves,” he was quoted as saying by Young Journalists Club.
Tea is cultivated in northern Iran where 50,000 families earn their living from tea farming on more than 25,000 hectares of fields.
Close to 95% of tea orchards in Iran are rain-fed. About 110,000 tons of dried tea are consumed in Iran every year.
Iran imports tea from India, the UAE, Sri Lanka and Kenya.
According to Rouzbehan, Iranian tea is 100% natural and pesticide-free.
“Tea in Iran is cultivated in the northern provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran. The special climate of the region causes the tea plants to hibernate every year during the six months of autumn and winter. The extreme cold terminates a majority of the pests and the rest are dealt with through biological methods. Iranian tea is considered organic. This gives us an edge [in international markets],” he told Financial Tribune in an interview last year.
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