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Sri Lanka to export tea to Iran every month to settle a $251 million debt

23 Dec, 2021

Sri Lanka will export tea to Iran every month to settle a $251 million debt, Iran’s Trade Promotion Organisation said.

The Sri Lankan Government had announced earlier that it had reached a deal with Iran to settle an outstanding debt by exporting tea to that value.

Alireza Peyman-Pak from Iran’s Trade Promotion Organisation was quoted as saying today that “a deal was reached on Tuesday, according to which Sri Lanka will export tea to Iran every month to settle a $251 million debt for Iranian oil supplied to Sri Lanka nine years ago”.

The barter deal will allow sanctions-hit Iran to avoid having to use up scarce hard currency to pay for imports of the widely consumed staple, Peyman-Pak said, according to the AFP news service.

“Iran and Sri Lanka have great potential to develop mutual trade,” he said, adding that Iran’s non-oil exports to the country are valued at less than $100 million a year.

The Ministry of Plantation of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Trade of the Islamic Republic of Iran agreed to formulate a scheme for the settlement of a sum of US$ 250,925,169 outstanding from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation to the National Iranian Oil Company by means of utilizing the said sum to facilitate the export of Ceylon Tea to Iran by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU). (Colombo Gazette)

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