TEHRAN- Iran’s deputy agriculture minister said that 117,126 tons of tea leaves have been harvested in the country since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20).

Mohammad-Ali Tahmasbi said that the output has been reached despite the cold weather at the beginning of the harvest season and a 10-day delay in starting harvest, IRIB reported.

Tea production in Iran is expected to reach 130,000 tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), according to Head of Iran's Tea Organization (ITO) Habib Jahansaz.

Tea harvest season starts in farmlands across the northern provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran in early May.

More than 55,000 families grow tea over 28,000 hectares of farmland in the two provinces, accounting for 90 percent of the country’s total tea production.

In late December 2019, Jahansaz named Azerbaijan, Iraq, and Afghanistan as the top destinations for Iranian tea exports.

Iran exports tea to India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Canada, Australia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

MA/MA