30,000 Tons of Tea Smuggled Annually

About 80,000 tons of tea are brought into Iran every year, 30,000 tons of which are contraband, the head of Iran Tea Organization said.

“In the last fiscal year (March 2016-17), the government purchased from local farmers more than 139,000 tons of fresh tea leaves, worth 2.34 trillion rials ($62 million), from which 31,200 tons of dried tea were produced, a record high in the last seven years,” Mohammad Vali Rouzbehan was also quoted as saying by the Persian daily Shorou.