BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
In total, 4.66 trillion rials (about $111 million) has been paid to tea farmers in Iran since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2021) to date, the Chairman of Iran Tea Organization Habib Jahansaz said, Trend reports citing Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of Iran.
According to him, this means 83 percent of money for tea leaves purchased from farmers in Iran has been paid.
The overall sum of money to be received by farmers comes from both the government (who has paid out its share in full), and the tea factories. The latter have only paid out 75 percent of their share.
The chairman noted that so far, 95,800 tons of tea leaves have been purchased from farmers in Iran's Gilan and Mazandaran provinces under a guarantee. This is an increase of about 19 percent, compared to the same period last Iranian year.
“So far, 21,600 tons of dry tea has been produced from the purchased tea leaves,” he said.
Jahansaz stressed that Iran's annual tea consumption is 100,000 tons. About 30,000 tons of it is provided by domestic production.
While Iran's annual tea exports amounted to about 1,000 tons, the chairman added.
He said that it is planned to provide loans to farmers and tea factories worth 500 billion rials (about $11.9 million) as working capital in Iran in the current Iranian year (from March 21, 2021 through March 20, 2022). While in the last Iranian year (from March 20, 2020 through March 20, 2021), 520 billion rials (about $12.3 million) worth of loans were issued in this regard.
The chairman emphasized that the third stage of tea harvesting in Iran will start tomorrow on August 11, 2021.
As reported, the price of first-grade tea leaves is 66,900 rials (about $1.59), and the second-grade tea leaves is 44,800 rials (about $1.06) in this season.
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