Dylan Bettencourt
The South African rooibos industry has paid the Khoi and San community around R12.2 million as part of the benefit-sharing agreement signed three years ago.
The payout serves as a landmark achievement for the Khoi and San community who for several years fought to be acknowledged for their expertise on the rooibos product.
The rooibos industry signed an agreement with the National Khoi and San Council in 2019 that meant the community would benefit from the profits made from the rooibos product.
The R12.2 million is the first sum of money the Khoi and San community have received since the agreement was signed.
In 2014 the South African government recognised the Khoi and San community as the rightful traditional knowledge holders of the rooibos plant.
Martin Bergh, chairperson of the South African Rooibos Council (SARC), said the money paid out is to alleviate poverty, food insecurity, lack of social development and to protect biodiversity.
“As a signatory to the Nagoya Protocol, South Africa requires all who trade in indigenous biological resources such as rooibos to share benefits with traditional knowledge holders in a fair and equitable way,” the SARC said in a statement on Tuesday.
The agreement also includes job creation and the support of local farmers in the Western and Northern Cape.
Rooibos is native to the Cape Floral Kingdom and can only be produced in South Africa. It is exported to 30 different nations.
The industry employs around 5,000 people who produce enough of the plant to make around
5.6 billion cups of tea a year.
Image source: @Reuters
