Iranian importers have defaulted on payments for about 125,000 tonnes of basmati rice from India, Tehran’s top supplier of the premium aromatic grain, raising concerns about future shipments of the grade that fetches nearly $2 billion a year to New Delhi. Iranian buyers have refused to take the delivery of basmati rice containers worth nearly $125 million citing a crash in domestic prices, said the Indian sources directly involved in these deals. Higher imports from other suppliers, including Pakistan, had bumped up supplies to Tehran. Indian suppliers of these cargoes, mostly small exporters, said their Iranian partners had wilfully reneged on the contract. The containers are now lying at Iran’s major cargo port of Bandar Abbas.