Financial Tribune - A total of 50,309 tons of green tea leaves produced during the spring harvest have been purchased by the government from local farmers at 1.58 trillion rials ($12.39 million).

This shows an 18% rise compared with the volume of purchases during the similar period of last year, according to the executive manager of Iran�s Tea Factories Syndicate.

�Close to 11,320 tons of processed tea were produced from this volume of green tea leaves,� Mohammad Sadeq Hassani was also quoted as saying by ILNA on Monday.