Tea shortage warning as climate crisis sees production plummet and prices soar

Kenyan growers who produce black tea for British supermarket shelves have warned that climate impacts are damaging crop harvests and further diminishing their already "scarce" household incomes.

The East African nation currently provides half of all black tea consumed across Britain, but local farmers face increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, lower crop yields and quality, alongside escalating operational expenses over recent years.

These compounding issues have driven up global tea costs, leaving supermarket shoppers in the UK paying noticeably higher prices for their favourite beverage.

Yet impoverished farmers at the start of the supply chain see little financial gain from higher market prices. Harvesting smaller crops while spending more to maintain them, growers watch as intermediaries, brokers and large corporate firms continue absorbing the vast majority of total profits.

Across the western Kenyan regions of Kericho and Bomet, many local agricultural workers say they cannot cover basic family living expenses, let alone invest in essential protective measures to build future climate resilience on their farms.

These areas are experiencing severe weather volatility this year, including heavy rainfall during usually dry January periods, unseasonal heat in July, intense storm activity and prolonged drought conditions.

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 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.

“I could not pick anything. It meant there was no income. There was nothing. We just had to survive.”

While she normally earns around 120,000 Kenyan Shillings (Kes) annually (£692), this will likely drop to no more than 90,000 Kes (£520) in 2026.