Tea Association of Malawi has hit back at Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (Cdedi) for asking estate owners to release idle land to landless families affected by Tropical Cyclone Freddy.

Cdedi demanded tea estate owners in Phalombe, Thyolo and Mulanje to voluntarily release their idle land, arguing that most estates had abandoned their poor Malawian workers at a time they need them most.

But Tea Association chairperson Sangwani Hara in a written response on Thursday described as misinformation that the tea estates have idle land.

“All the land in tea estates is optimally utilised through land management practices and international standards for sustainable tea production. It is, therefore, misleading to allege that there is idle land in tea estates,” he said.

Cdedi executive director Sylvester Namiwa said his organisation’s recent visit to the tea-growing districts revealed that the estate owners were not moved by the plight of their workers.

He said: “Our findings are that it is only a handful of estate owners who have responded to effects of the devastating cyclone by doing something to mitigate the suffering of their workers.

“This comes against the growing debate as to who actually benefits from the proceeds of the tea, tung, coffee and macadamia industry that has been in existence for the past 100 years or so.”

He said it was worrying that only a few players in the industry are ready to alleviate the suffering of the locals when disasters strike.

Cdedi has since requested district commissioners in Thyolo and Mulanje to summon estate owners under their jurisdiction to an all-inclusive stakeholders’ meeting and demand from them commitment to the aforementioned measures.

In November 2021, Cdedi also requested the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to summon all the relevant stake holders to investigate the contribution made by the tea and macadamia industry to Malawi’s growth domestic product.

Thyolo District has an area of 1 715 square kilometres and a projected population of 670 000. 

The tea estates occupy 14 422 out of 26 380 ha.

While Mulanje is 2 036 square kilometres with a population of  590 000 and the estates occupy 14 847 hectares of land out of 152 393 hectares.

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