TEHRAN (Iran News) – Executive Manager of Iran’s Tea Factories Syndicate says the trade barter with Sri Lanka is not limited only to tea and Sri Lanka will barter 4 to 8 more products for repaying its oil debts.
Speaking to ILNA, Mohammad Sadeq Hasani said that last year a delegation from Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization visited Sri Lanka and the outcome of the visit was an MoU that Sri Lanka accepted to pay its oil debts to Iran through bartering 4 to 8 products and tea was one of them and raw material for producing tire was another product.
Reacting to recent report that Sri Lanka will give tea to Iran in exchange for its oil debts, Hasani said that tea is not the only product of Sri Lanka which will be sent to Iran for its oil and 8 products have been agreed to be sent to Iran, adding that this mechanism of imports will be in favor of producers because the product are imported with suitable price.
He went on to say that domestic tea product does not meet the demands of the domestic market and therefor import is inevitable and last year 110,000 tons of tea was imported which was unprecedented in the history of the country. He noted that 67% of the required tea was imported from India, 16% from Sri Lanka, 7% from the UAE and 3% from Turkey and India.
Hasani reiterated that importers should pass many hurdles in the sanctions era to success in importing their products but bartering tea from Sri Lanka creates the possibility of direct export to Iran and there is no need to give the official rate forex to importers to import tea.
He added the country needs a new formula for balancing the real tea consumption in the country, adding that two years ago 75,000 tons of tea was imported and last year the figure rose to 110,000 tons and added that it seems getting the Nima-rate forex has boosted incentive for imports.
Hasani reiterated that the quality of Sri Lankan tea should be confirmed by Iranian supervisory authorities, adding that barter of tea from Sri Lanka is nothing new to surprise people.
He further said that the price of Indian and Sri Lankan tea is lower than what is registered in the custom office and importers register it with prices higher than their purchase. On exports of Iranian tea, he said that Iran Custom Administration statistics dhow the figure is 10700 tons but it is strange and it seems this amount of tea has not exited the country, admitting mafia group in this industry since the Pahlavi Regime exists and continues its activities.
He admitted that people have lost their purchasing power and it can be seen in the amount of tea sales that tea factories announce.
