The Iran payments crisis, which has hit the tea industry badly, is being discussed at the highest level, a Tea Board member has said.

“The Additional Commerce Secretary informed the exporting community that the Iran payments crisis issue is being taken up at the highest level,” the Tea Board Deputy Chairman, Mr Roshni Sen, told PTI today.

A meeting was held here between the representatives of the tea industry and government officials to discuss the various issues of concern.

The tea industry has sounded a warning about the deepening crisis stemming out of the payments issue, which has the potential to cause the vital Iranian orthodox market to slip out of Indian exporters’ grasp.

An official of the Indian Tea Association (ITA) said that unless the problem was solved by this month, the Iranian market would be lost to Indian tea exporters.

The industry had worked hard to develop the market, whose size was approximately 100 million kilograms and in which India’s share was 15 mkg.

Unless the problem was solved, then other countries like Sri Lanka would increase penetration in the Iranian market at the cost of Indian exporters.

Following the imposition of US sanctions on Iran, the dollar and euro-based transactions with the West Asian country have been stopped, leading to a crisis over the mode for making payments.

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