Vintage tea that throws tea on the cup of tea
On May 21, people will celebrate international tea day, a moment not only to drink but to evaluate and make some reflection. This year’s topic, “Tea and fair trade” It calls for a refreshed focus on sustainability, transparency and justice in a global tea market, which is expected to increase to $ 362 billion in 2029 from $ 260 billion in 2023 according to Statistical. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, world tea production reached 6.5 million metric tonnes in 2021, with China representing almost half of that production. India, Kenya and Sri Lanka followed as great producers. The industry supports about 13 million people worldwide, including about 9 million small farmers, usually people or families cultivating less than two hectares of land, often based on manual labor and local resources for production. Small holders are responsible for the growth of about 60% of the world’s tea.
How climate change affects tea production
Kahiga-ini, Tetu, Nyeri, Kenya-2019/02/18 … more
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, Tea is one of the most sensitive crops in the world. Increasing temperatures, monitoring of monsoon and extreme weather events are already disturbing production in key areas. Kenya’s tea production decreased by 13.55% in the first two months of 2025, mainly due to unusually dry weather conditions, according to the Kenyan tea board. Similarly, irregular rainfall standards in India threaten the consistency of crops and means of living of farmers.
According to research supported by the future climate for Africa (FCFA), tea production in African countries such as Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to the sensitivity of culture to temperature, rainfall and extreme weather events. Tea thrives only in narrow agricultural zones, making it particularly sensitive to climate displacements, such as prolonged droughts, thermal waves and intense thunderstorms.
As average temperatures rise and rainfall standards become increasingly irregular, yields for tea plants are likely to decrease, the cost of inputs will increase and both small farmers and large estates will face increasing adjustment pressure. Small -scale producers, who often do not have financial resources, can fight to give climate agricultural practices such as rotten, composting or irrigation and could be forced to abandon tea as a whole if the conditions worsen. In the meantime, large estates may face lower labor productivity and escalate the cost of maintaining soil quality and water availability. Without timely and targeted adaptation strategies, long -term viability and profitability of the African tea sector remain in serious danger.
Redesign of tea supply chain
Women harvest tea leaves at Kondoli Tea Garden for International Tea Day in Nagaon’s area … more
Sustainability in tea should exceed pesticides and water use. It must include ethical work practices, transparent supply chains and fair profit distribution. According to the alliance of tropical forests, certified tea farms usually show better salaries, safer work environments and more responsible land management. In accordance with Center for Business and Human Rights ResourcesMore than 13 million people work in the world tea, many of whom work under exploitative and unsafe conditions.
Women dominate the lower levels of tea work, from cracking on the packaging and remain largely under -supplemented in the management, ownership or influence of policy. According to the United Nations Development Program, workers in the Bangladeshi tea garden, most of whom are women, remain among the country’s most marginalized groups. Despite their dominance in the workforce as tea leaf collectors and factory workers, they face low wages, harsh conditions and limited access to health care and education for their children. Bangladesh, which hosts hundreds of tea plantations, is one of the world’s leading tea exporters, but working conditions for the main female workforce remain deeply unfair. In Bangladesh, where more than 60 % of tea workers are women, wages often fall below $ 1.25 a day, as stated in Alarabiya English.
In Kenya, one of the world’s largest tea exporters, a 2023 survey by Bbc Exposed systematic sexual abuse in plantations that provide important international tea brands. These cases are not isolated, reflecting structural issues in the global tea supply chain that disproportionately harm women.
As mentioned by the analysis of the United Nations Common Country for 2020, gender structural inequality in tea -producing countries has resulted in women being paid less than men for the same work and exposed more in unsafe and exploitative conditions.
Consumers: A strong Friday of Change
Tea purchases, consumers have a choice.
According to a survey of 2020 consumer feelings of consumers, more than 60% of respondents said they would pay more for sustainable packaging products. This is in line with the findings from Nielseniq, which said 78% of US consumers consider the sustainable lifestyle important. Products that make environmental, social and governance claims have an average of a 28% cumulative increase over a five -year period, compared to the increase in products by 20% for products without such claims.
Ethics authorizes consumers to support better salaries, safer conditions, to support women’s rights and climate durability through daily market decisions, but also require the transparency of the supply chain to make sense not only marketing. As tea continues to flow across the border and breakfast tables, consumers, companies and governments have to play a role. What we choose to support, come from morality or be morally produced or exploited will determine whether the future of tea is viable, fair and just.
