The Rooibos in Your Cup Now Pays the Khoi and San Who Discovered It

Every kilogram of rooibos you brew now carries a small payment to the Khoi and San, the peoples who held the knowledge of the plant long before it was farmed, and that money has reached their communities in the Cederberg, where it is funding grassroots projects.

The projects include school funding, water pumps, an organic rooibos nursery, bursaries for higher education, an internet café, and diesel for farmers to till their lands. They are listed in the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs' Indigenous World 2026 report, which said the levy "has enabled the community to own and support many grassroots projects that are crucial to the wellbeing and development of the communities." The report said money began reaching communities in 2024, and that communities in Wupperthal, Nieuwoudtville and Suid-Bokkeveld, in the Cederberg, continued to receive funds in 2025.

The payments come from an agreement signed in 2019 between the South African Rooibos Council and the traditional knowledge holders, represented by the South African San Council and the National KhoiSan Council. Under it, processors pay a levy of 1.5% of the farm-gate price of rooibos, the price paid to farmers per kilogram of dried leaf, into trusts held for the two communities. It was the first time anywhere the Nagoya Protocol on sharing the benefits of genetic resources and traditional knowledge was applied across an entire industry. How the deal was reached, and how the money is split and spent, is set out in full separately.

The levy exists because the Khoi and San held the traditional knowledge of rooibos long before it was farmed commercially. Researchers have said a payment of this kind leaves larger questions of land unresolved. In a 2025 article, Rachel Wynberg of the University of Cape Town and her co-authors wrote that white-owned companies still cultivate about 93% of rooibos while Indigenous farmers control less than 7% of the land, and said "real change would include equal access to land, a more inclusive industry, and the wider sharing of economic benefits."

Sources: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, "The Indigenous World 2026: South Africa"; South African Rooibos Council, "Khoi and San to share in benefits of Rooibos" and "Khoi and San receive first cycle of benefit-sharing funds"; Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, "Payment of benefits from rooibos to San and Khoi communities"; The Conversation, "South Africa's small-scale rooibos tea growers aren't getting much from an industry deal".