Global freight
Unfortunately, the conditions for growing tea in Europe are not great, so it has to be transported here from farms in Asia and Africa... In order to make it really economical, they usually collect freight and send larger boat loads in the fall. Now that we have had a pandemic, it has affected the tea industry in several ways. Plantation closures and land borders have meant that there are no workers for harvesting, which is very labor-intensive. So some plantations have lower production than usual.
Domino effects
When the pandemic started, transportation companies reduced capacity, anticipating an economic downturn. In hindsight, it turned out that demand for many goods increased rapidly. Factories started up again, so even a month into the pandemic, there was a shortage of capacity.
Also, in the US, there is a shortage of truck drivers and dockworkers. It may not sound like it can affect us, but it does. Outside the ports on the West Coast of the United States, there are tons of container ships waiting to unload their cargo. That leaves both ships and, more importantly, containers behind, unable to load new goods in China and India.
The sum of this, plus the ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal last winter, has disrupted the entire transportation system. The price of sending a 40-foot container from China to Europe has risen from around $2,000 to nearly $20,000.
For tea drinkers
There have been problems with shipping for a while, but it's only now that it's really starting to affect tea consumers. For us, this may mean that some varieties will arrive later and be temporarily out of stock. Some goods won't come in at all, but it's hard to say now which ones. We are doing everything we can to find other varieties to cover the need when some run out. We also expect prices to rise, but that also depends on what happens to the Swedish krona.
We can say that there are still lots of great teas to choose from. And that, despite everything, tea continues to be a very affordable drink.