SLanka tea industry threatened by economic crisis

In the wake of political turmoil in Sri Lanka's capital, 70 miles to the east the country's tea pickers are worried for their future. The tea industry has survived since before the First World War but global economic chaos such as rising fuel prices, shortages of food, the after-effects of the pandemic and the Russian military operation have all played their part in making living conditions difficult.

Concerns have also come from within the country too, with the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa's three year old ban on chemical fertilizer, a move he hoped would turn the industry organic, leading to a collapse in production. The move was reversed, and growers can use the chemicals, but they are harder to come by.

With a new all-party interim government in power and elections on the horizon, things may improve, but with tea production almost halved, growers fear it may already be too late to save the industry.