Sri Lanka paid for Iranian oil with tea

According to Energy Press, the chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board said that the country has paid 55 million dollars out of 250.9 million dollars of its debt for buying fuel from Iran through tea exports.
He said that according to the memorandum of understanding with Iran, Sri Lanka has started repaying its fuel debt since August of last year through the export of tea.

Sri Lankan Tea Board Chairman Neeraj Dmel said the country has cleared $55 million of its debt to date.

He added that his country exported 4.1 million kilograms of tea to Iran in the first four months of this year, which is three times more than the tea exported to Iran during the same period in 2023.
In December 2021, it was announced that Iran agreed to accept Sri Lanka’s Ceylon tea in exchange for $251 million in oil debt.

Alireza Peyman Pak, head of the Iran Trade Development Organization, said: “In recent negotiations, we agreed in a written contract to receive monthly Sri Lankan tea as reimbursement for the fuel purchased from Iran.”

At that time, Peyman Pak said that a contract was signed with Sri Lanka for the monthly export of tea to Iran to settle the country’s debt of 251 million dollars for the oil that was bought from Iran 9 years ago.