Sri Lanka's tea workers fear for their future

By Charles Haviland

Tea harvesters make 500 rupees (£2.50) a day - but only if they pick 18 kg

  East of the town of Badulla is some of Sri Lanka's most dramatic scenery.

Forested hills rise vertically from valley floors filled with rows of pale green tea bushes.

Early each morning, hundreds of women add bright specks of colour to the landscape as they begin harvesting the leaves by hand.

It appears picturesque.

But the job is gruelling and a new sense of gloom is starting to pervade Sri Lanka's tea industry.    Full Story>>>

Rising costs, falling prices and poor weather are now making it more expensive to produce tea than to sell it, with the effects being felt in every part of the production chain.