Tea industry wants Iran to keep rupee-rial mechanism

Kolkata, July 19 (IANS) The Indian tea industry has urged the Iranian government to keep the rupee-rial agreement between the two countries outside the normal foreign exchange regulations for trade in the commodity.

A business delegation, led by Tea Board of India deputy chairman Roshni Sen, visited Iran July 16-18 to augment two-way trade.

The delegation, along with India's Ambassador D.P Srivastava held talks with important stakeholders of the Iranian tea industry and senior officials of the government.

It discussed various measures that could be taken to increase the trade between the Indian and Iranian tea companies, the Tea Board said Thursday in a release.

The delegation also stressed the need to keep the tea high in the priority categorisation and simplify the procedures for GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certification and its renewal.

The Iranian government assured the delegations its demands were genuine and would be considered positively.

Hamid Reza Movassaghi, chairman of Iranian Association of Tea, stressed the need to promote the Indian orthodox tea among the Iranian people so that India could regain its number one position in the Iranian market.

Iran was a major consumer of the high quality orthodox tea from India and imported nearly 15 million kg every year.

But exports to Iran started falling after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in December 2010 scrapped the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) currency swap system for payments to Iran following pressure from the US, which is using sanctions to force Tehran to halt its nuclear programme.