bdnews24.com :
World’s biggest tea companies are joining forces to combat the multiple threats tea crops world over are facing.
Setting aside their business rivalries, tea companies like Unilever, which owns Lipton, Brook Bond and PG Tips, Twinings, Finlays, and Tata Global Beverages, which owns Tetley are coming together to ensure tea remains as accessible and affordable as it is today.
From climate change and water shortages to rural de-population and low wages have threatened the very existence of the tea industry.
“Unless we manage these issues, we’re looking at a very different future for tea,” Sally Uren, chief executive of Forum for the Future, which is co-ordinating the Tea 2030 initiative, told BBC.
According to a BBC report, growing population and urbanisation posed a serious threat to tea.
Tea was firstly grown in China 5000 years ago. Currently it is grown in 35 countries in the world. Tea is the most popular drink after water.
The world’s population is set to grow by a third by 2050, increasing demand for food by up to 70%, according to the United Nations. And much of this population growth will be in rapidly-developing countries such as China and India – precisely those that produce the most tea, it pointed out.
Pressure on agricultural land will inevitably rise, and tea will have to compete with other, more staple, crops.
For example, between 2005 and 2010, 13,000 hectares of land in Indonesia was converted from tea to grow rubber, palm oil and fruit, while cashew nuts are becoming an increasingly attractive alternative in Sri Lanka.
In a world of limited resources and rapidly growing populations, tea may increasingly find itself crowded out.
And it’s not just growing populations, but demographics that will affect tea production. Urbanisation means rural workers are moving en masse to cities in search of higher wages and a better life.
Traditionally, wages have been low in the tea industry, with many workers struggling to survive on less than a realistic living wage. The attraction of service-sector jobs in the city can be hard to resist.
The report quoted Katy Tubb, director for tea at Tata Global Beverages, as saying: “Workers may be getting the right wage legally, but this may not be adequate. We need to look at what can be done to ensure workers receive a proper living wage.”
Climate change is another major threat to tea production, according to the BBC report.
Tea is a relatively delicate plant, sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and is grown in regions particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events.
For example, in the past 60 years rainfall has fallen significantly in Assam, the main tea-growing region of India, while forecasts suggest Sri Lanka will experience more intense rain and higher temperatures in the future, the report pointed out.
In those areas where rain can no longer be relied upon, tea growers have had to turn to irrigation, and with it the very real threat of water shortages.
“It is quite possible that more extreme weather could interrupt supply and make tea far more difficult to grow,” says Writer. Tea production in some areas, particularly those at higher altitudes, will no longer be possible.
The increasing popularity of tea in domestic markets also means there could be less available for export, so any shortfall in supply will be exacerbated in those countries dependent on imports to quench the massive demand for tea.
Bangladesh and many other countries are failing to increase tea exports after meeting their internal demand and so import-dependent countries may face a tough crisis in meeting their demand.
This has already made an impact on the global tea market.
According to Bangladesh Tea Board, there are 163 tea gardens in the country cultivating tea on 115820 hectares of land. Bangladesh grew 63.8 million kilograms of tea last year, which is so far the highest in the country’s history.
As per the Export Promotion Bureau, Bangladesh exported tea worth 1.75 billion in 1993-94 fiscal while it was Tk 180 million in 2012-13.
From the 1970s through to the early 2000s, the price of tea fell gradually as supply exceeded demand. Since then, however, the price has more than doubled as the demand-supply dynamic has reversed, in no small part due to drought hitting global production.
As Sarah Roberts, executive director at the Ethical Tea Partnership, says: “If tea production doesn’t change, there are serious and substantial concerns about who is going to grow and pick tea.”
The scale and gravity of these threats, the report claimed, has forced tea companies to work together.
Much has been achieved already, as the tea industry has been collaborating for almost 20 years. For example, many companies have already achieved 100% Rainforest Alliance Certification, which reflects environmental as well as social standards.
Very few women hold supervisory roles on tea plantations
The focus has been on critical issues such as wages, irrigation, the role of women and educating farmers how best to grow and protect crops, and therefore their livelihoods.
There is much more to do, but attention is also turning to longer-term, fundamental threats.
“We all have an investment in the future of the tea industry, and we will have more impact, more scale and get things done faster and better [if we work together],” Tubb told the BBC.
