[imagesource: 406 Media]

Out of respect for myself and you, the reader, I will avoid making any jokes about ‘spilling the tea’.

Also, this is a bit of a sad story, with rooibos farmers fearing that they may be pushed out of business by the industry’s larger producers and fluctuating prices.

Earlier this week, it was reported that despite up to 90% of this year’s rooibos harvest being delivered to processors, farmers were still unsure what price they would be paid for their produce.

Around half of our national rooibos yield is exported, with Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, the US, and the UK the biggest markets, and the mountainous Cederberg region the epicentre of production.

Reporting below via Fin24:

In 1993, what was then the Rooibos Tea Board – a single marketing channel for the industry – was replaced by a private company, Rooibos Ltd, and the industry entered a free market.

But some producers Fin24 spoke to believe Rooibos Ltd has an unfair advantage due to taking over the Board’s infrastructure, while new entrants must start from scratch.

Moreover, they say, whatever price Rooibos Ltd is prepared to offer is then followed by other players.

The fear was that the 2021 price would be below R20 per kilogram, which would be lower than the production cost.

In 2020, it was estimated that producers incurred a cost of around R35 to produce a single kilogram of rooibos tea, but processors bought rooibos tea at around R25 a kilogram.

One farmer in Piketberg, who spoke with Fin24 anonymously for fear of victimisation, outlined his plight:

“If we knew in January already what the price will be, many farmers would not have gone ahead and prepared the land, bought seeds and planted if the price was too low compared to production costs.”

In a follow-up article, Fin24 spoke with Willem Engelbrecht, a former chairperson of the Rooibos Council. He now calls New Zealand home, but his farm in Clanwilliam still produces rooibos.

Engelbrecht believes that after the 1993 forming of Rooibos Ltd, when producers received shares based on their delivery history, the industry was fairly represented.

However, as farmers struggled with fluctuating rooibos prices from year to year, they were forced to sell their shares to stay afloat, and the power became concentrated in fewer hands.

You can read more on his thoughts here.

Farming really can be a thankless task at times.

[sources:fin24&fin24]