Tehran – Iranian farmers harvest over 50,000 tons of green tea leaves annually, according to the head of Iran’s National Tea Research Institute.

 

“Up to 50,000 tons of quality green tea leaves are harvested from the country's gardens annually, and we are moving towards producing by-products from tea leaves,” Ahmad Shirinfekr said.

 

He added, "Currently, with about 22,000 hectares of tea gardens, nearly 30 percent of the country's consumption is met; while in the 1970s, with a cultivated area of about 34,000 hectares and an annual collection of nearly 270,000 tons of green leaves, a large part of it was spent on annual tea.”

 

Shirinfekr said, “Today, the tea produced is no longer stored, but sold and consumed.”

 

“This improvement in quality is the result of years of implementing extension guidelines, improving cultivation methods, developing fertilizer nutrition, and in some cases improving irrigation conditions,” he said.