Lankan, Iranian officials discuss how to boost SL tea exports

Sri Lankan and Iranian officials have discussed how to improve Sri Lanka’s tea exports, Minister of Power and Energy, Kanchana Wijesekera said on Saturday (20) in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Wijesekera said that the Chairman and other officials of the Sri Lanka Tea Board had visited the Ministry of Power and Energy on Friday (19) with the officials of the Iranian Embassy and Iranian Trade Promotion Organisation.

The Minister said that in 2023, state-owned petroleum distributor, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) had entered into an agreement with the Tea Board to send tea to Iran in lieu of about 250 million dollars owed for oil.

The two sides discussed the progress of the implementation of the agreement, payments to the Tea Board from CPC and how the two sides could improve tea exports, he said.

The barter agreement to pay for oil purchased in 2012 was first reached in 2021 but was implemented only in 2023.

In 2023, the Sri Lanka Tea Board said the agreement would send UDD 5 million worth of tea each month for 48 months.Sri Lanka’s Tea exports for 2023 earned 1.31 billion dollars.   (RK)