Until now, tea exports from India to Iran have been gaining momentum since 2013 and broke all records in 2019 (January-December) to reach 53.45 million kg (mkg).
Iran has replaced Russia as the largest importer of Indian tea.
Tea industry sources say that they can repeat this export success, but there are challenges Iran is devastated by the dual attack of the Covid-19 outbreak and a crude oil price war.
Export activity has slowed down over the past two months because low oil prices mean that Iran cannot pay for such high volumes of imports.
But it’s not just tea exports which are important for India – tea contributed a little over 4 per cent to total exports. Rice exports however are on a downward trend, while tea exports remain strong as tea is ‘essential’ to Iranian society.