New campaign calls for fairer UK tea trade

The Fairtrade Foundation has unveiled a recent campaign calling on the UK government, businesses, and on a regular basis tea drinkers to take motion in support of tea producers worldwide.

The Brew it Fair launched this week on the identical day as International Tea Day. 

It is looking for motion to be taken to be sure that the people behind the UK’s 100 million every day cups of tea are paid fairly and treated with dignity.

The campaign coincides with the discharge of a serious recent Fairtrade report, ‘Brew it Fair: Creating a Fairer Future for the People Behind the Tea we Drink,’ highlighting persistent inequities in the worldwide tea trade.

Despite three many years of advocacy, only a fraction of tea sold within the UK is certified Fairtrade, and the overwhelming majority of profits still fail to succeed in those that grow, pick and process the tea.

According to the report, while UK consumers have grown accustomed to paying little or no for tea, the individuals who grow it receive even less.

A minimal portion of the worth paid in supermarkets actually reaches tea producers, with the typical tea bag costing just 2 to three pence.

The report also highlights how the worldwide tea market is dominated by auctions, where a handful of powerful buyers use their influence to drive down prices, leaving farmers with little control and inadequate compensation.

Kenyan tea farmers – who produce nearly half the tea drunk within the UK – are among the many hardest hit.

A March survey of over 250 Kenyan tea producers revealed that just one in 5 can afford basic needs like food, education and housing.

Climate change is exacerbating their challenges, with optimal tea-growing areas in Kenya predicted to shrink by 25 per cent by 2050.

The Brew it Fair campaign is urging the UK government to introduce a recent law mandating human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) in business supply chains, protecting overseas staff from abuse without shifting the burden of compliance onto them.

The Fairtrade Foundation desires to see the UK government to work with businesses to reform and stabilise the tea supply chain through shared responsibility.

It can also be asking the federal government to fulfil the UK’s climate finance guarantees, ensuring that producers affected by climate change, especially in tea-producing nations like Kenya, receive the support they should adapt.

“The UK accounts for 61 per cent of all of the Fairtrade tea sold on this planet, and Fairtrade tea producers have earned greater than £50 million in Fairtrade Premium through sales of Fairtrade tea within the UK over the past 30 years: critical investment for constructing more resilient farms and communities,” said the CEO of Fairtrade Foundation, Eleanor Harrison, adding that with just 4% of Fairtrade-eligible tea currently sold under Fairtrade terms, greater scale and stronger laws that uphold human rights and protect the environment are essential to achieving lasting, systemic change within the sector.

Despite the difficulties, Fairtrade initiatives have provided hope.

At Kenya’s Gacharage Tea Factory, which supports 5,000 farmers, Fairtrade premiums have been invested in income diversification projects similar to avocado and dairy farming, and scholarships for local students.

“The future looks brilliant for these young and sensible Kenyans,” said tea farmer and Gacharage Premium Committee member, Jacky Wangari.

“We have about nine students having fun with full scholarships through Fairtrade funds … [with] two of them working; one is a teacher and the opposite one is doing a business on the town. If Fairtrade was not there, these brilliant students in need wouldn’t have joined campus.”

Among the key UK brands already on board are Marks & Spencer, Ringtons, Clipper, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Greggs.

Rwandan choreographer and Fairtrade Foundation partner Sherrie Silver helps spread the message: “Being based in Rwanda – a serious tea-producing country – I actually have seen firsthand how tea can change lives through employment, women’s empowerment and improving the standard of life for people in farming communities.

“Fairtrade is such a very important cause because it ensures people world wide receive higher prices, decent working conditions and a fairer deal for all.”

Ms Harrison stressed the urgent need for reform: “The people growing our tea should have the opportunity to live with dignity. That means earning a good income, working in secure conditions, and having the power to support their families and send their children to highschool.

“We all have a task to play in making that occur: from the UK government introducing a recent law to assist prevent abuses in tea supply chains; to businesses taking a lead on responsibility; and to all of us as tea lovers in the alternatives we make after we buy our tea within the supermarket.”