Editorials

EDITORIAL: Stop robbing tea farmers

tea

Workers picking tea. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Reports that some tea factories are pinching farmers’ hard earned cash and paying them less than 70 per cent of the worth of their produce are grossly distressing.

It all represents the continuation of the culture of impunity that has blocked every effort to make key sectors of our economy more efficient and profitable.

It also speaks to the persistence of the middleman’s syndrome that continues to sap energy out of key sectors of the economy by denying real producers the full benefits of their labour.

That some tea factories are skimming off up to 50 per cent of what farmers earn in the market is not only heartless, but also criminal. It portrays utmost greed as well as the lack of understanding that paying farmers poorly is the surest way to kill the industry as most will look to producing what maximises their earnings.

READ: KTDA factories on notice for low pay

That the practice of cheating farmers out of what rightly belongs to them remains rampant across multiple factories speaks to loose regulation of the subsector and the superficiality of the reform effort that has gone into it.

The Tea Directorate’s reading of the riot act to the offending factories, though coming late, is commendable and must be carried to its logical conclusion, including severe punishment for those who fail to comply.