Minister of Labour Vera Kamtukule has encouraged the Tea Association of Malawi to explore value addition in order to spur the growth of the industry.

The two sides met on Friday where they discussed, issues of child labour, gender equality and compensation claims in the tea value chain.

On the issue of child labour, the association emphasized on their zero tolerance to child labour adding that they have put in place structures to curb the malpractice.

The association also mentioned, the establishment sensitization activities with commercial and smallholder stakeholders and a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to measure, assess, monitor and address the anti-child labour efforts.

On gender related issues, the association stated its aspirations towards achieving equal gender representation within the value chain.

On this, Kamtukule highlighted that it is important for the association to involve more women in top management.

She also acknowledged the problem of unscrupulous compensation claims saying it needs to be addressed.

Furthermore, Government through Ministry of Labour has established the worker’s compensation fund to cushion the industry against exorbitant claims.