- Climate volatility is reducing tea yields and damaging crops in major producing regions.
- Only one in five Kenyan tea farmers surveyed by Fairtrade said they earned enough each month to cover essential family costs.
- Lidl has launched a new Kenyan tea designed to pay growers an additional living-income premium.
Kenyan farmers supply around half of the black tea consumed in Britain, yet many are struggling to earn enough to cover basic household costs as unpredictable weather damages crops and raises the cost of production.
The pressure is feeding into a wider rise in global tea prices, meaning British shoppers are paying more for a familiar supermarket staple even as some of the people growing it remain trapped on low incomes.
The pressure begins long before a packet of tea reaches a British supermarket shelf.
In western Kenya, tea-growing communities in areas including Kericho and Bomet have faced unusually heavy rainfall, heat, storms and drought this year. Fintea, a union of tea farming cooperatives in Kericho, reported that production across its five cooperatives fell by 30 per cent in May and June compared with what farmers would normally harvest during those months.
Nelson Ngeno, manager of Fintea, said farmers are “really scared” as changing weather patterns threaten their livelihoods.
“Climate is really affecting our farmers,” he reportedly said. “There has been a complete change as far as the weather is concerned.”
The impact can be particularly severe for smallholders. In January, an unprecedented hailstorm damaged thousands of tea plants in Kabartegan. Fintea estimated that farmers lost between 20,000kg and 30,000kg of tea production each day for around four months while the plants recovered.
For farmer Lilian Mutai Levin Langot, the storm wiped out much of her income. She normally earns around 120,000 Kenyan shillings, or about £692, a year, but expects her income to fall to no more than 90,000 shillings, around £520, in 2026.
“It meant there was no income. There was nothing. We just had to survive,” she reportedly said.
She took out a loan to get through the year and struggled with healthcare and school costs. An attempt to diversify her income by buying a cow and calf also failed after she could not afford enough feed.
When a higher shelf price does not mean a better livelihood
The squeeze is not limited to individual farmers. Fairtrade research involving more than 260 tea farmers and workers in Kenya found that only one in five said they earned enough each month to support their families with essentials. Fifty-five per cent of farmers surveyed identified changing weather patterns as their biggest challenge, citing higher costs and the difficulty of maintaining an adequate income.
That creates an awkward picture for Britain’s tea market. Consumers face higher prices, while the people at the beginning of the supply chain can still struggle to benefit from those increases.
For farmer Paul Kipsigei Koech, who supports seven children, his wife and his elderly father, tea income has fallen to around 3,000 to 4,000 Kenyan shillings, or roughly £17 to £23, a month.
“The income is really low to support the entire family,” he reportedly said. “It is not enough. It is very scarce.”
Another farmer, Gladys Maiywa, said she earns around 3,000 shillings a month to support eight children, with drought leaving her unable to harvest for extended periods.
“I want to see an increase to the rate of pay for our tea,” she reportedly said.
Philip Kitur, a 66-year-old farmer near Kericho, said his July tea production was down by half compared with normal levels.
“A long time ago, the weather was very, very reliable but now the weather patterns have changed,” he reportedly said.
His income, he added, “just covers the production costs”.
The figures help explain why climate change is becoming a supply-chain problem rather than simply an environmental one. When harvests fall, farmers have less tea to sell while facing higher costs to maintain their crops. Fairtrade says climate change is already affecting both the quantity and quality of tea grown around the world.
For Britain, where around 100 million cups of tea are drunk every day, continued pressure on production could make the economics of the everyday brew increasingly difficult to ignore.
One response is to put more money back into the farming end of the chain.
Lidl has launched its new Way To Go! Single Origin Kenyan Tea, priced at £1.99 for 80 bags. The retailer says it is the first UK product of its kind to pay a Fairtrade living income reference price to Kenyan tea growers, adding a payment on top of the Fairtrade Minimum Price and Fairtrade Premium.
Fairtrade Partnerships Director Kerrina Thorogood said only one in five tea farmers in Kenya currently earns enough to support their families with essentials.
“As a result, many struggle to invest in their farms, adapt to climate change, and plan for the future,” she said.
“Addressing this challenge requires businesses to take responsibility for the prices they pay.”
Lidl says the new tea will contribute an additional amount per kilogram towards growers’ livelihoods, while its wider own-brand tea range is already sourced from certified Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance supply chains.
The question for Britain's tea drinkers may therefore go beyond how much a packet costs. If the farmers producing the leaves cannot earn enough to keep their farms viable or adapt to increasingly unpredictable weather, the pressures behind the supermarket price could become harder to ignore.
