KOLKATA: The Indian tea industry has asked the Iranian government to maintain the Rupee-Rial agreement and keep it outside normal foreign exchange regulations.

 

A delegation of the Indian tea industry, led by Tea Board Deputy Chairman Roshni Sen, recently discussed issues threadbare on increasing exports to Iran and measures required for it.

 

The India delegation asked the Iranian government to keep the Rupee-Rial agreement between India and Iran outside the normal foreign exchange regulations, the Tea Board said in a release.

 

The delegation also stressed on the need to keep tea high in the priority categorisation and simplify the procedures for GMP (good manufacturing practices) certification and its renewal.

 

The delegation also met the Iranian commercial banks namely Parsian Bank, Saman Bank, Pasargad Bank and EN Bank in the presence of India representative of UCO Bank, and discussed the procedures to be followed in opening the LCs and modalities to make the transaction in a smooth manner, the release added. 

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.
 

(Source: indiatimes)