Financial Tribune- The government has bought some 28,000 tons of fresh tea leaves worth 650 billion rials ($17.3 million) from local farmers in northern Iran so far this year (started March 21), from which 6,300 tons of dried tea have been produced, the head of Iran Tea Organization said on Sunday.

According to Mohammad Vali Rouzbehan, the government purchased 139,000 tons of fresh tea leaves worth 2.34 trillion rials ($62 million) from farmers last year (March 2016-17), from which 31,200 tons of dried tea were produced, IRNA reported.

The government has a guaranteed purchase system in place for many crops, including tea, to build up its strategic reserves and control prices in the domestic market.

Tea is cultivated in Iran’s northern provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran where 50,000 families earn their living from tea farming on more than 25,000 hectares of fields.