Climate impacts hitting yields and already ‘scarce’ incomes, tea farmers warn

Gladys Maiywa, a tea farmer, on her farm in Chepchabas, in Bomet County (Anthony Odamo/Fairtrade/PA) Rebecca Speare-Cole 3 minutes ago Kenyan farmers who grow tea sold in UK supermarkets have warned that climate impacts are hitting yields and their already “scarce” incomes.

The East African nation, which supplies half of all the black tea consumed by Britain, has seen farmers facing unpredictable climate conditions, lower production and quality levels, and rising input costs in recent years.

This has contributed to the wider surge in global tea prices, with UK shoppers now having to fork out more for their beloved brews.

But the farmers living in poverty at the other end of the supply chain are also seeing little financial benefit from higher prices as they harvest less and pay more to sustain their crops, while middlemen, brokers and large corporations continue to absorb most of the profits.

Tea fields in Kericho county, Kenya. (Anthony Odamo/Fairtrade) Many in the western Kenyan regions of Kericho and Bomet said they are increasingly unable to meet their families’ basic living costs, let alone invest in climate resilience measures for their farms.

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These areas are seeing more volatile and extreme weather this year, including wetter conditions in January when it is usually dry, hot temperatures in July when cooler conditions are expected, storms and drought.

Nelson Ngeno, manager of Fintea, a union of tea farming cooperatives based in Kericho, said farmers are “really scared” as their livelihoods are “cut short” by the changing conditions.

Production across Fintea’s five cooperatives fell by 30% in May and June this year compared to what their farmers usually harvest during those months, he said.

“ Climate is really affecting our farmers,” Mr Ngeno said. “There has been a complete change as far as the weather is concerned.

In January, an unprecendented hail storm damaged thousands of tea plants in the district of Kabartegan, with Fintea estimating losses of 20,000 to 30,000kg daily over four months as the plants recovered.

Lilian Mutai lost four months of income after a hailstorm damaged her tea crops. (Anthony Odamo/Fairtrade) Lilian Mutai Levin Langot, from the village of Kesebet, was among some 500 tea farmers who lost significant earnings when the storm wiped out her farm.

The 48-year-old smallholder farmer told the Press Association: “It was scary. The hailstones hit everything. On the tea plants, only the stems remained.