Achieving Fair Value Distribution in Tea

Let’s take the example of smallholder farmers and tea pluckers in the East African countries represented at last week’s East African Tea Trade Association convention. These people, whose livelihoods depend on tea, are trapped in a system where they are underpaid and underrepresented. When you’re earning barely enough to get by, you’re forced to make impossible choices. Can you afford to send your child to school? Do you have enough saved to access healthcare when someone in your family falls ill, and you know that you won’t be paid when you are not plucking? Or are these basic needs simply out of reach luxuries?

Addressing the issue of decent incomes and fair pay is a gateway to solving a host of other problems. It opens opportunities for families to invest in education for their children, access better healthcare, and improve their living conditions. It also fosters an environment where farmers and workers have choices, where they are not limited by their immediate circumstances.

It’s important to recognise that this is not a problem unique to tea; many agricultural sectors face the same challenges. Whether it’s cotton, coffee, or cocoa, these industries are all burdened with low wages, illiteracy, gender bias, and systemic exploitation. But the solution isn’t just about raising wages in isolation – it’s about creating a system where value is justly allocated throughout the supply chain.

Another challenge we face is the disconnect between the price of commoditised agricultural products and farmers’ incomes and pluckers’ wages. For example, in the cocoa industry, despite a recent surge in commodity prices following a poor harvest, farmers have seen no corresponding increase in their earnings.

The same issue is present in tea. While consumers may be concerned about rising tea prices, farmers and pluckers continue to receive low, stagnant incomes. Climate change continues to impact productivity, yet these market dynamics remain unchanged.

It’s not as simple as believing that the private sector benefits from low wages and oversupply, while governments hesitate to raise minimum wages due to concerns about increasing production costs, potential job losses and impact on other sectors. There does, however, seem to be a disconnect from the laws of economics and market forces, where additional production of any agricultural commodity is encouraged, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

I believe that partnerships between the public and private sectors are essential for addressing the challenges we face in tea. Governments play a vital role in creating the right environment for private investment, ensuring stability, regulation, and infrastructure, while businesses generate jobs and drive innovation. Public finances alone can’t solve deeply entrenched issues like poverty; it requires collaboration.

We’ve seen examples where governments, such as Sri Lanka, have stepped in to raise minimum wages, and while not perfect, it’s a step in the right direction. But this can’t be solved by governments alone. The private sector must play its part.

The root causes of poverty are complex, and I don’t claim to have all the answers. What we can all agree is that achieving fair value distribution has to be a collective effort between donors, producers, Government and buyers. This isn’t just about setting minimum wages or agreeing a fair income – when farmers and pluckers receive more for their crop, we can unlock opportunities for education, innovation, and diversification, creating a more resilient and sustainable future for all.

Ultimately, solutions must come from partnerships, open debate, and lateral thinking. So many of the challenges in agricultural supply chains stem from poverty and lack of disposable income, and by addressing these, many of the serious risks that we all know plague our supply chains will fade away.

While conferences like this one have their role to play, I’ve noticed a reluctance to tackle the bigger issues – such as low incomes, the declining interest among young people in farming, and the role of mechanisation. Achieving fair value distribution will require tough decisions and trade-offs, and not everyone will benefit as much as they hope, or as they’ve been accustomed to.

Ultimately, clear for all to see, the current system is unjust. If we truly want to make a difference, we must move beyond talk and take collective action. We won’t get everything right immediately, and there will be teething issues. However, doing nothing can be almost as damaging as actively enacting the unethical practises we all decry at these conferences. Action, even imperfect, is the key to progress.