Financial Tribune- Around 39,446 tons of tea leaves were purchased by the government from local farmers at 964 billion rials ($22.95 million) during the spring harvest of the crop, registering a 6% decline compared with the similar period of last year, the head of Iran Tea Organization said.

�The reason behind the decline in production is the frost that set in early spring, which caused damage to some tea orchards in the north of the country.

Close to 8,900 tons of processed tea were derived from this amount of purchases,� Mohammad Vali Rouzbehan was quoted as saying by IRNA.

Tea undergoes three harvests a year: the spring harvest that starts in late April, the second in summer begins early June and the last one is in autumn and starts late September.

According to the official, Iranian tea is 100% natural and pesticide-free.

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.