Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of tea pickers in Kenya have protested against the automation of tea leaf harvesting, which according to workers and unions is causing the loss of thousands of jobs. Several machines purchased by the companies were burned and destroyed and there were also violent clashes between protesters and the police. One of the latest major protests occurred in the factories of Ekaterra, a multinational that owns the Lipton brand, in western Kenya: a group of casual workers destroyed five machines by setting them on fire, and the company temporarily suspended its production.
Kenya is the third largest tea exporter in the world after China and Sri Lanka: locally, this sector generates about 200,000 direct jobs and about 2 million indirect jobs, according to estimates made by the Kenyan Minister for Cooperatives and Development Simon Kiprono Chelugui. The tea pickers are mainly women and young people, who often have no other job opportunities.
Large multinational companies that produce and sell tea, such as Associated British Foods, which owns the Twinings brand, and Ekaterra have their plantations in Kenya. They are enormous plantations: those of Ekaterra (in Kericho, in western Kenya, and in Limuru, near Nairobi) extend overall for over 140 square kilometers. For the production of these companies, aimed above all at the sale of tea bags in large retailers, the use of machinery can be very advantageous and make the collection of the leaves much faster, more efficient and cheaper.
Manual harvesting is considered preferable above all for producing the finest teas, made with the smallest and youngest leaves, which must be identified and chosen, and for which the use of machinery is less indicated, which are large tractors driven by a person who mow and collect leaves as they go.
A single machine can replace up to 100 workers and reduce the costs of tea collection by about two thirds: according to calculations made by the Kenyan government, the use of machinery can bring down the costs of tea collection from 15 to 4 shillings per kilo (i.e. from about 9 to 2 euro cents per kilo). Sammy Kirui, an executive at Ekaterra, he said a Traffic lights that automation is «crucial» to the competitiveness of his company.
Estimates were also made on how many jobs would be lost due to the increasing use of tea harvesting machinery. Jared Momanyi, representative of a workers’ union in the tea sector, he said a VOA News that only in the Bomet area, near Kericho, “before the introduction of the machines over 50,000 people worked: now they are between 5,000 and 7,000”.
Another estimate was made by Nicolas Kirui, a former trade unionist and now a member of one of the groups established by the Kenyan government dealing with this problem: always a Traffic lightsOver the past 10 years, Kirui said that automation has caused the loss of 30,000 jobs in Kericho.
In addition to the destruction of machinery, there have also been violent demonstrations in which hundreds of tea pickers entered some establishments, purposely damaged the plantations and then violently clashed with police officers, sometimes even setting fire to their cars. . In two of the last protests last May in the factories of Ekaterra and Finlays 23 people remained wounds and 46 have been arrested.
Automating tea harvesting also has its proponents. Tabitha Njuguna, general manager of the Kenya office of AFEX, a company that buys and sells currencies, told Traffic lights that adopting new technologies for automation is necessary to “unleash the potential of agriculture throughout Africa” and that therefore they should be welcomed as a positive thing, “despite the frustration of some workers”. Njuguna added that “the integration of new technologies into an industry can cause disruptions that appear threatening”, but that integration should be seen as an “imminent and inevitable” process.
Last March, the group set up by the local government of Nandi county in western Kenya, has recommended that at least 40 percent of leaf harvesting is done manually. The same group would like a limit on the import of machinery to be introduced. Meanwhile Florence Bore, Kenya’s Labor Minister, said during a visit to Kericho, a few days after the destruction of some machinery, that she wanted to “expand the labor market to boost job opportunities for Kenyans and Kenyans”. There have also been expressions of interest in solving the problem by the companies themselves, at least in words: Kirui, the manager of Ekaterra heard by Traffic lightssaid it plans to launch local training initiatives to create new jobs.