Revitalizing Iran

by

TEHRAN, Iran

By Tolou Aminpour

Vahid Salim, managing director of food and beverage import and export company Salim Aria Noush, attests to the vigorous revitalization of Iran’s tea industry.

Iran is one of the world’s top tea-consuming nations, located in a region that turned away from coffee to develop “a rich heritage of tea,” says Salim. While most tea is imported, the government subsidizes growers and is nurturing the development of hand-processed specialty tea.

The result was a record 2016-17 harvest of 31,200 metric tons, a seven-year high. Black tea accounted for 28,000 metric tons of the harvest but green tea is growing in popularity. Growers harvested 1,200 metric tons in the year ending March. Iranians consume about 110,000 metric tons of finished tea annually. The per capita average is 1.5 kilos.

ALSO: Tasting Notes

One of the key advantages in marketing these teas is the fact that Iranian tea is grown at higher elevations where there are few pests, according to Salim. Thanks to a long winter with snow, teas are largely free of disease and easily certified organic since there is no pesticide residue. Salim describes the finished product as a “clean tea with smooth flavor and aroma.” Teas, mainly processed as orthodox black, are bright in the cup with a reddish-orange color. (See, Tasting Notes, pg 54)

Tea grows best in the far north in the hilly provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran above the coastline of the Caspian Sea. There are 50,000 acres (25,000 hectares) under tea, managed by 50,000 households on farms that average 3,500 sq. meters. The smallest are under 70 sq. meters. Teas are plucked seasonally with the spring harvest accounting for 40% of the total. The spring and summer harvest are for export but the best orthodox teas, those with the natural taste of flowers and fruit are mostly consumed locally. Wholesale prices range from $1.15-$3.50 a kilo.

The government offers a guaranteed price for fresh leaf, according to Mohammad Vali Rouzbehan who heads the Tea Organization of Iran (ILNA). Payments since March of this year already total $41 million (R1.55 trillion) for 78,000 metric tons of fresh leaf. “Production has declined 2% due to unfavorable weather but this year’s harvest enjoys very high quality,” says Rouzbehan. Prices are steady. Cases of fraud and incidents of adulteration are far fewer when compared to foreign tea, said Hossein Rastegar, director general of Iran’s Food and Drug Quality Control Laboratory.

At its peak producers operated 165 factories of which 149 remain active. During the long and difficult period under sanctions, the nation’s tea factories fell into disrepair. Land use permits to grow tea on at least 7,000 hectares in Gilan were changed to grow more essential crops. Tea imported from India, Africa, and Sri Lanka, priced at competitive rates, far exceeds domestic production and smuggling, which has been prolific over the past 20 years, remains a serious issue.

Rouzbehan estimates 80,000 tons of tea is brought into Iran every year of which 30,000 tons is contraband.

In January, to discourage smuggling, the government lowered import tariffs for eight basic commodities, including tea, by as much as 55%.

Modernizing factories

Only small quantities of tea are exported. Rouzbehan estimates domestic growers can at best meet only a quarter of the nation’s domestic demand. Iran’s first modern factory was built in 1934. Factories remain small and remote, processing from 200 to 2,000 metric tons but all three locally produced brands: Lahijan, Fooman, and Amlasht are growing.

 Last year production rose by 60% which has spurred investment. Now that they have access to foreign equipment, local growers are modernizing and repairing as many of the nation’s tea factories as practical. One downside is renewed consumer interest in imported tea. Importers like Golestan Co., which had a 39% market share of retail sales in 2016, will now face more intense competition in grocery outlets.

London-based market research firm Euromonitor observes that “consumer attitudes towards tea changed significantly (once sanctions ended). Many households switched to branded packaged tea in line with increased availability of different brands on store shelves. Tea bags, once a product for affluent consumer groups, became widely available in line with the more hectic lifestyles of tea consumers especially in key urban areas,” writes Euromonitor.

Euromonitor predicts the conversion from unpackaged tea to high quality branded tea will continue at a faster rate.

Mechanization

Tea workers are largely uneducated. They learned the trade from experience, not academic training. The ministry of agriculture wants to introduce modern, more efficient and earth-friendly practices. It’s hard to make farmers listen to their advice but there are positive signs of improvement. In the factories, hygiene is taken more seriously. All the farmers are insured, and child labor is forbidden. One looming obstacle is labor. The hours are long and the work is difficult which discourages younger people from taking over as their parents' age.

One solution is mechanical harvesting. Machines can pluck 30-times more leaf day-in, day-out, but only 10% use harvesting machines, said Rouzbehan. Gardens are small and the cost of the machines is too high for many smallholders because they just grew enough tea to get a return on their investment. An equipment sharing program is one possibility.

Organic advantage

Zubin Amiri is a passionate, fifth-generation grower. His factory is located in the small town of Amlash. The family business dates to 1898 when it was founded by M.T. Chaichi (Chaichi means tea-holder). The company began as a tea importer but planted gardens in the mountains on the Caspian coastline. Amiri is a pioneer in organic production and a strong proponent of specialty processing. This includes blends with locally sourced wild pistachios, walnuts, Seville oranges, and berries.

Amiri says “our organic products offer the most rare and unique of their kind that passes and shares the experience of pleasure of flavor, aroma, nutrients and, spiritual highness to its aware consumers. It brings a new delicacy and assurance of quality to customers as well as new innovations in types and flavors.”

His teas are certified organic in Europe; under USDA NOP and by IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) as well as IOA, the Iran Organic Association. He sells online, ships globally and offers wholesale quantities. This has enabled him to find markets in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Canada, European countries, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and the United States.

Salim at Salim Aria Noush says there is a global export market waiting to discover the qualities of Iran’s tea. He envisions container loads of Iranian tea processed and headed to the port at Bandar Abbas for destinations in the West and around the world.

“Iran is back in the game,” he declares.

Tolou Aminpour owns Amin Ario Rad Paydar Trading Co. in Tehran, Iran.