Khoi and San to benefit from rooibos sales
The government has entered into a benefit sharing scheme which will see the Khoi and San communities sharing in the profits from the sales of rooibos tea.
The SA Rooibos Council and two indigenous communities, represented by the National Khoi-San Council and the South African San Council, met at Yzerfontein in the Western Cape on Friday.
Environmental Affairs Minister Babara Creecy described the agreement as a significant milestone.
“The agreement today gives the Khoi and the San communities 1.5% of the value of every kilo of rooibos tea that is sold by farmers and this amounts to a considerable sum of money. Our estimation is somewhere in the region of R12 million per year.
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“It's an agreement that comes in the sense of something known as the Nagoya Protocol which is an international agreement of which South Africa is a signatory to.”
The Nagoya Protocol, adopted in 2010, is a legislative framework which provisions fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of genetic resources.