Gov’t Buys $27m Worth of Fresh Tea

Close to 44,000 tons of fresh tea leaves worth 1.03 trillion rials ($27.57 million) have been purchased from farmers in the first tea harvest in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces, the head of Iran Tea Organization said.

“Of this amount, close to 9,000 tons of dried tea have been produced,” Mohammad Vali Rouzbehan was also quoted as saying by ISNA.

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

Last year (March 2016-17), the government purchased more than 139,000 tons of fresh tea leaves, worth 2.34 trillion rials (close to $62 million) from farmers, from which 31,200 tons of dried tea were produced.

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 of fields.

Close to 100,000 Iranian households earn their living, directly or indirectly, through tea production.