STiR coffee and tea magazine

52 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 4, 2017 (August / September) By Tolou Aminpour Revitalizing Iran TEHRAN, Iran 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 im- ported, 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 pop- ularity. 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. 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) un- der 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 con- sumed 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. Cold winters with snowfall in the Alborz Mountains reduce the threat of pests and make tea plants more resistent to disease. Tea factories are consolidating, getting larger, and owners are installing modern processing equipment.

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