The Charity Tea Auction, a biannual event organised by the Tea Association of Malawi (Taml), Tea and Coffee Merchants Association and brokers, raised K7.2 million (about $18 000) at the highest buying price of $33 per kilogramme.
The money realised from the auction held in Blantyre on Tuesday, whose bidding is done is dollars, will be used for community development projects such as building of schools, hospitals, sanitary facilities, provision of potable water, rehabilitation of rural hospitals, and construction of bridges in the tea growing areas of Thyolo and Mulanje, according to Taml.
Minister of Industry and Trade Sosten Gwengwe, who presided over the auction, thanked the tea industry for the initiative which is part of their corporate social responsibility.
He, however, said what is important is that the industry does not always wait for this event to engage in corporate social responsibility.
“Government is aware that almost all the estates have continuous annual corporate social responsibility programmes worth millions of kwacha each year,” said Gwengwe.
Taml chief executive officer Clement Thindwa said despite the industry being engaged in corporate social responsibility initiatives, most of the estates voluntarily subscribe to some reputable and accredited international standards such as ethical tea partnership, fair trade, rain forest alliance, UTZ certification for sustainable farming of agricultural products launched in 2002.
He nonetheless sad the industry faces a number of challenges such as rising cost of production [inputs] against static tea prices on the global market.
“There is also the challenge of climate change which is negating production levels, deteriorating shortage of labour attributed to social change and proliferated pressure of rigorous compliance to international standards,” said Thindwa.
After the money has been collected and places into a holding account, representatives of some of the estates vet and award funding to most deserving cases.
The 1 334 kg of tea auctioned is being stored at SDV warehouse in Blantyre and will have to be collected within 14 days from the day of the auction.
Three buyers of some of the tea said the commodity should be distributed to school for free.
