Climate hurting tea industry

Climate change is impacting the production of one of the world’s most popular beverages, tea, altering not only its taste, aroma, and potential health benefits, but also the lives of farmers who grow tea for a living.

In Kenya, some 60 per cent of the tea output is by small holders whose average holding is just 0.5 acres per farmer. These farmers, majority of them affiliated to the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), have limited economies of scale and are quite vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

According to a report by Kenya’s Tea Directorate, tea production for the month of September increased marginally by one per cent to 33.3 million kilos compared to 32.8 million kilos recorded the same period last year. The increase was largely due to high rainfall experienced in the West of the Rift Valley, particularly in Nandi, Kericho and Nyamira counties. Consequently production in the West, according to the report, increased from 19.1 million kilos recorded in Sept 2013 to 20.6 million kilos in 2014.

Already beset by multiple challenges such as high cost of energy and labour, climate change poses a major threat to the industry, which supports more than four million of the country’s people and tops the charts as a foreign exchange earner.

KTDA, working with bodies such as Rainforest Alliance, has launched impactful programmes such as the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative to sensitise farmers and employees on environmental issues such as water conservation.

But the Government now need to set up a climate change research station to study the potential impacts of climate change and develop future mitigation strategies. The Institute must adapt itself to deal with more complex issues by bringing in qualified human resource and investing in technology to monitor climatic changes. It must gradually move away from merely studying pests and diseases to helping tea growers respond and adapt to the changing climate.

This brings us to the issue of production costs, use of technology and deepening of markets. The cost of energy, for instance, will need to come down by at least 50 per cent of current levels to afford producers the leeway to invest in technology and diversification.

Technology, on the other hand, will further bring down the cost of production while diversification will create employment opportunities by shifting jobs from other countries where value addition is currently done.

It is notable that majority of local producers have a competitive advantage in black CTC teas, which is packed in 50Kg bags and shipped to Kenya’s key markets, mainly Egypt, Pakistan, the UK and Sudan, among others.

To break ground in diversification, the Government will have to be involved (both in deepening access to existing markets and breaking ground in new ones) considering the global dominance of multinational tea companies.