Tea Leaves Collection by Tea Cultures
Fair trade, a goal which many people strive and fight for, however are not always willing to pay a higher price in order to realize it. But what does “fair trade” actually mean? Obviously it literally means a fair trade in the product market, but entails much more than just that. It is a (international) trading partnership based on transparency and respect for one another, with a main goal to strive for greater equality. However, although many people assume it, Fair trade has no relation to the quality of a product. It only says something about the way something was made or produced.
Every company strives to support Fairtrade to the fullest extent, however due to various reasons this is not always reachable. Fairtrade products entail more costs, more production costs, higher wages for its workers and eventually a significantly higher purchase price for companies. Especially smaller companies cannot always afford these kind of prices, in order for them to break even they have to sell their products at an awfully high selling price. In addition, what makes it difficult for a company to become Fairtrade is the offer, the offer of Fairtrade products is extremely lower than non-Fairtrade products.
Tea, besides water, it is the world’s most popular drink in the world, together we drink about 70,000 cups of tea every second. Especially we tea lovers, can’t imagine a day without our favourite cup of tea. However, in this multi-billion dollar industry, where millions of people work in, working conditions are often not as well as we want them to be. Tea workers often have to deal with low wages and poor working conditions, even if the national minimum wage is met, it is often not enough to support the basic needs.
The organization Fairtrade recognizes these problems and challenges and dedicated to bring change to the live of tea farmers and its workers. To give you some insight on how Fairtrade brings change to the tea sector, their approach contains the following goals/guidelines.
- Each Fairtrade certified producer organization receives a so-called ‘Fairtrade Minimum Price’ which is adjusted to each tea region, production procedure and tea sort (eg. organic teas receive a higher price). The Minimum Pricing ensures a kind of safety net for tea farmers and workers against sudden price drops that can seriously harm smaller tea farms.
- Next to the ‘Fairtrade Minimum Price’ tea producers also receive the ‘Fairtrade Premium’ which tea farmers and workers often spend on direct benefits for their families, communities and agricultural practices.
- ‘Fairtrade’ is part of an international coalition which addresses low wages in the tea industry.
Fairtrade tea Facts & Figures
- € 5.983.518,- is the amount of ‘Fairtrade Premium’ tea producers received in 2016.
- 352.157 is the number of Fairtrade tea workers and farmers in 2016 in 110 different organizations worldwide.
- 31% of the Fairtrade tea workers and farmers are women.
- 258.870 metric tonnes of certifiable tea is grown by Fairtrade tea producers in 2016.
With Tea Cultures’ Tea Leaves Collection we focussed on much more than just the quality. Other specifications such as, Fairtrade and biological played a big role in this line of teas, without losing our well-known quality.
Moral of the story; When you choose to drink the Tea Leaves Collection by Tea Cultures, not only do you drink a delicious cup of tea, but you also support tea farmers and workers and bring necessary change to the tea industry.
