Tea grower's story: Context for humanity

■2025 was a tough year for tea growers, worse than 2024, yet 2026 will be tougher

- By Dilhan C. Fernando

2025 was a tough year for tea growers, worse than 2024. Yet 2026 will be tougher. At last month's Global Dubai Tea Forum some of us gathered to talk about the 'Future of Tea.' We produce the most popular drink after water, we were assured; more than 5 billion cups consumed daily. For growers of a herb rich with goodness for mind, body and soul in a world desperate for those benefits, that should be cause for celebration, yet as growers from Sri Lanka, Africa and India met on the sidelines, the concern was palpable and the fear most often voiced was 'prices'.

Tea is an incredibly valuable industry. Not just as a beverage but as researchers announced recently to a world living in the shadow of chronic disease, valuable for life itself; flavonoids in tea, "could lower the risk of developing serious health conditions and have the potential to live longer." That study analysed data from 62,743 women and 23,687 men over 24 years, connecting flavonoid intake with lower risk of frailty, impaired movement and poor mental health. All critical concerns for an ageing global population.

Tea was first discovered in China as a medicine and practitioners of holistic, natural healing have known that value for centuries; "Tea and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) share a deeply intertwined relationship." Tea is yet to deliver the full benefit that Nature intended, researchers Das, Banerjee, Saha and Chatterjee explain in their review of the health benefits in tea: "Tea harbours more than 700 bioactive compounds viz, different classes of polyphenols, unique amino acid L-Theanine, alkaloids (Caffeine, Theobromine), and Volatile Flavour Compounds (VFC).

Tea's polyphenols make its inherent therapeutic potential unlimited.

Tea's significance in managing cancer, diabetes, stomach ulcer, influenza, neurological diseases, etc. is well-documented. However, advantageous biochemical capabilities of tea have yet to be fully utilised."