BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 20
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
About 43.9 tons of tea leaves have been purchased from farmers in Iran during last 20 days, Chairman of Iran Tea Organization Habib Jahansaz said, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad.
According to Jahansaz, 95 percent of purchased tea leaves are 1st grade tea.
Jahansaz added that so far, the value of the tea purchased was some 1.99 trillion rials (about $47.4 million).
The official said the amount of dry tea processed was 9,890 tons to date.
"This year, low-interest, unlimited loans will be issued through a special Fund on tea. The loans will be provided for agriculture, purchase of equipment, modernization of factories and working capital,” he said.
Jahansaz said that the loans worth 550 billion rials (about $13 million) were issued at 4 percent in the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020) and will be returned within four years. The loans issued increased by 300 percent compared to the preceding Iranian year (from March 21, 2018 to March 21, 2019).
The official said that it is forecasted that 130,000-135,000 tons of tea leaves will be purchased from farmers this year. This means an increase of 10 percent compared to last year.
Jahansaz added that 75 percent of the tea leaves purchased from farmers are paid by tea factories and 25 percent by the government.
The price of first-class tea leaves is 46,000 rials (about $1.09), and the cost of second-class tea leaves is 33,000 rials (about 78 cents) this year.
As much as 126,700 tons of tea leaves worth 3.42 trillion rials (about $81.5 million) were purchased from farmers in Iran's Gilan and Mazandaran provinces last Iranian year.
In Iran, some products such as rice, sugar beet, wheat and tea are purchased from farmers by a state-owned company under a guarantee and paid for in installments.