Imbibe Place to Watch: The Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association

Sri Lanka

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The island of Sri Lanka produces over 300,000 tons of tea per year and its tea industry employs about 2 percent of the country’s 24 million people. But that industry—and its majority female labor force—is in trouble. Picking tea leaves by hand is backbreaking work for poverty wages in a plantation system that’s changed little since its colonial beginnings 200 years ago. Though Ceylon black tea is known worldwide for its sweet, sunny flavor, working in the tea business leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. A growing coalition of tea gardens is trying to change that. Collectively known as the Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association (CATA), these small farms are slowly improving the flavor of Sri Lankan tea while creating a new, more sustainable labor model for the people that power it.

“The industry isn’t going to survive if it keeps producing tea to sell for four or five dollars a kilogram at auction,” says Simon Nihal Bell, a sponsor of AMBA Estate in the Uva Highlands and the association’s co-founder and former chairman. “Workers are leaving for better jobs in other fields and countries. No parents ever want their children to become a tea plucker.” CATA’s 13 member gardens focus on small lots of handmade brews inspired by the landscapes that create them, like soothing green tea scented with local Ceylon cinnamon leaves at the Kaley Estate. Workers paid at above-market rates are trained as artisans rather than industrial cogs. They regularly contribute to product development, and CATA membership requires that workers are paid a share of a garden’s revenue. The goal is to create opportunities for advancement and prestige in a field that accounts for 11 percent of the country’s exports. Since the association’s founding in 2020, it’s working.

While larger gardens struggle to fill jobs, AMBA receives hundreds of applications, Bell notes. Many Sri Lankan tea gardens with forward-thinking regenerative agricultural programs can’t afford the high cost of organic and fair trade certifications. Membership in CATA offers them local industry support and collective selling power in a global market with growing demand for unique specialty teas. “The traditional industry has a poor history of innovation and changing with the times,” Bell says. “We’re not going to change that whole industry, but we’re committed to changing the culture within it.”

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