00:00Along the rolling emerald hills of Sri Lanka's central highlands, tea plantation workers are feeling the pinch.
00:07Since late February, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has led to a fifth of the world's fuel supplies being
00:14stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.
00:15As a result, fuel prices in Sri Lanka have jumped more than 30 percent, with cooking gas prices close behind
00:23at around 20 percent.
00:25Some farmers here are now relying on wood-fired stoves to tamp down on costs.
00:33Prices have gone up a lot because of the war. Gas has become very expensive, so now we cook mostly
00:39with firewood.
00:40The cost of goods has risen, and it is hard to buy the things we used to. We are buying
00:45smaller quantities now.
00:47With higher prices, low earnings don't go far either.
00:51Tea plantation workers typically earn around five U.S. dollars a day, not much higher than the national daily minimum
00:58wage.
01:01There are expenses for my son and expenses for my daughter.
01:05Because of that, this isn't enough.
01:07Despite that, we somehow managed to survive with the money we have.
01:11That's the situation nearly 1,000 employees working at this farm faces.
01:15The Dunkel estate, one of Sri Lanka's largest, grows about 350,000 kilograms of tea each year and is a
01:24key Sri Lanka export.
01:26I'm doing this job, and I will continue doing this work.
01:29The reason I'm working hard in this estate is because I want my children to have a better life.
01:34I want to educate them and give them a good position in life.
01:38That is my hope.
01:39For many Sri Lanka tea farmers, shrinking fuel supplies are already changing how they work and how they make a
01:45living.
01:46Chris Ma, Ted Chen and Yvonne Yang for Taiwan Plus.
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