In a first-of-its-kind barter deal, Iran has agreed to simply accept fee from Sri Lanka within the type of Ceylon tea to clear a debt for half oil exports price $251 million.
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s Plantations Minister Ramesh Pathirana instructed Reuters he aimed to begin sending tea to Iran from January. “We hope to ship $5 million price of tea every month to repay Iran for oil purchases pending because the final 4 years,” he stated.
He pressured that the association is not going to violate US-led sanctions imposed on Iran, as tea which falls underneath meals objects, are exempt and that no black-listed Iranian banks could be concerned.
The settlement signed by Pathirana and the pinnacle of Iran’s Commerce Promotion Group, Alireza Peyman-Pak, comes amid the island nation’s dwindling overseas reserves, stated to be $1.6 billion on the finish of final month.
Confirming the deal on Thursday, Peyman-Pak stated that “in current negotiations, we reached a written deal to reimburse Iran’s debt and curiosity on it within the type of a month-to-month cargo of tea produced in Sri Lanka.”
Sri Lanka produces about 340 million kg of tea yearly, using round 5 per cent of the inhabitants within the billion-dollar business, most of them girls.
Tea which is broadly seen as an Iranian staple and the nation has one of many highest charges per capita of tea consumption on this planet.
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