Most of Myanmar’s tea is grown in Shan State but demand for brides in China is drawing away many of the workers needed to cultivate the crop, farmers from the Palaung Tea Growers and Sellers Association, which is not officially recognised as yet, told a meeting at the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry on February 6.
Namhsan, Kyaukme, Namkham, Kutkai, Kalaw, Yatsouth, Mong Hsu and Mong Tone townships in Shan State are the major tea growing areas, with most farming done by members of the Palaung ethnic group.
“When Chinese dried tea leaf flooded the market in 2002-03, our business was badly affected because the two products were so different,” said U Soe Maung, a farmer from Namhsan township. “The market for dried tea dried up and there were no jobs available for young Palaung and Shan women, and many chose to get married to Chinese men instead,” he said, adding that Chinese men paid up to 20,000 yuan (about US$3200) to marry the women.
He said Chinese tea farmers can afford to use lots of fertiliser on their crops but farmers in Myanmar cannot. He added that farmers would get better yields if cut terraces into the hills but many cannot do so.
“Most of the dried tea leaf imported from China is illegal. But imports make up about 75 percent of the market, so most farmers have changed their operations to make wet tea leaf for use in salads,” he said.
U Soe Maung said there are 10 factories in Namhsan township producing dried tea, down from 100 in 2002.
U Win Kyaw, another farmer from Namhsan, said many Chinese from Shweli, as well as workers from central Myanmar, came and worked tea plantations eight years ago but the trend has reversed.
“Now Palaung men go to China and work at poppy fields or cutting sugar cane as daily workers because there is little work here,” he said.
Tea plantations are long-term investments and require significant capital to maintain. “We cannot afford to maintain our plants already but we need to make investment if we want to harvest high-quality leaf,” he added.
However, U Tun Myaing, the chairman of the association, said farmers need to work harder and more efficiently. “There are many drug users in every Palaung village. Farmers should focus on growing only tea, not growing illegal opium poppies on the side,” he said.
“We should be better organised as an association and work hard to lift quality levels so we can compete with China, Vietnam and India,” he said.
He added that the easing of Western sanctions, and the possibility of the European Union granting Myanmar global system of preferences for Least Developed Country status, tea growers stood a good chance of accessing new markets. But to do so they must improve quality.
“That is the only way to solve human trafficking and the illegal marriage of Palaung and Shan women,” he said.
Ministry of Home Affairs statistics, collected by the Central Body for Suppression of Trafficking in Persons, show that Shan State has accounted for most of the human trafficking cases over the past five years. The statistics show that 80 percent of human trafficking cases involve people who have been taken to China.
source: The Myanmar Times
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/4063-shan-state-tea-farmers-struggle-against-imports-loss-of-workers.html
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