On 9th April, the Indian Tea Association (ITA), the Tea Research Association (TRA) Tocklai, the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) hosted the largest gathering of organisations interested in the future of the Indian tea sector. TEAM UP India brought together the whole of the tea supply chain, with 165 delegates from over 50 organisations in attendance. Delegates included producer companies, Indian and International packers, UN organisations, specialist implementation agencies, international funders, certification bodies, tea associations from both India and abroad, smallholder and bought leaf sector representatives, and development partners. The objective of the event was to determine how to develop and scale-up approaches to deal with the sustainability challenges facing the Indian tea industry and communities so that producers thrive, workers lives' and the environment are improved, and buying companies can be assured that they are sourcing sustainably produced teas.

East Africa was the world's last region without submarine fibre-optic broadband internet access, and until the summer of 2009 had been forced to rely on slow and costly satellite connection for access. However, the region as recently been connected via fibre-optic cable, in theory, allowing much greater speeds at much lower prices. This rapid transformation in the region's connectivity has prompted politicians, journalists, academics, and citizens to speak of an ICT-fuelled economic revolution happening on the continent. However, while some research has been conducted into the impacts of ICTs on economic processes and practices, there remains surprisingly little research into the impacts of changing connectivity on economic processes and practices in East Africa. Here we summarise research examining the effects on this changing connectivity in the Rwandan tea sector.

This paper explores how UK-based companies deal with their responsibility to respect the human rights of Assam (India) tea plantations workers. Using publicly available corporate reports and other documents, it investigates how companies approach and communicate their potential human rights impacts. It highlights the gap between well-documents human rights issues on the ground and corporate reports on these issues. It aims to answer the following research question: in a context where the existence of human rights violations at the end of the supply chain is well-documented, how do companies reconcile their possible connection with those violations and the corporate responsibility to respect human rights under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and HUman Rights? The paper reveals the weakness of the current CSR approach from the perspective of rights-holders. It supports a business and human rights approach, one that places the protection of human rights at its core.

Verité provides this well-sourced web page, including details of reported child and forced labour in several tea producing countries, and explores what trafficking and/or child labor look like in the production of tea, and what governments, corporations, and others are doing to address the issue.

The tea industry has been going through an economic crisis over the last few years. Tea prices have remained stagnant while costs have continued to increase, both for inputs and wages. Added to this, COVID-19 will have a huge negative impact on the financial condition of the industry. The tea industry requires a Financial Relief Package to tide over the crisis. The Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations looks at some interventions which are placed for the Hon'ble Government of India's consideraiton.

This document describes the case for action for piloting and scaling alternative business models that have the potential to distribute value in more equitable ways. It provides a summary of the main failures of the current business models, the problems they create across agricultural commodities, the need for system level change, and highlights additional enabling factors for driving transformational change. This case for action serves as a foundation to the Sustainable value chains – case study series, which Forum for the Future is curating in partnership with other organisations in order to promote cross-commodity learning on alternative business models in tea, coffee, cotton and beyond. The case study series is intended as a useful resource for those planning, or already undertaking, work to test different business models. The lessons learnt have the potential to inform other projects addressing similar challenges, and ultimately accelerate the change that is needed.

A draft of the Tea (Promotion and Development) Bill 2022 issued by the Government of India which, if enacted, would repeal India's Tea Act (1953). If enacted, the new Bill would establish a Tea Board which, along with the Government of India would have the objectives of tea promotion and development set out in the Bill.

This document aims to encourage a discussion on generic tea promotion initiatives and to inform related policy efforts. It is composed of five main sections. The overview in Section I is followed, in Section II, by a description of the 'Tea markets: main trends and consumption renewal.' Section II also provides an analysis of recent developments in the te market with a focus on emerging consumption trends. Section III discusses 'Untapped opportunities on the tea market at individual country and global levels'. Section IV calls for 'Harnessing untapped opportunities through investing in a tea generic promotion strategy'. Section V concludes the paper with an overview of 'Major concerns on generic promotion: funding, benefits and sustainability.' The data used in this CRS are based on the FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea (IGG-Tea) database as well as other sources providing market intelligence for global and local tea markets.

Smallholder farmers play an increasingly important role in global supply chains. They make up an estimated 90 percent of the world’s farmers and will be essential to meeting our growing global demands for food. Companies that work with smallholders have a business opportunity and an imperative to support the productivity and sustainable livelihoods of smallholders in their supply chain, thereby contributing to inclusive economic growth. This working paper presents BSR’s proposed approach for expanding and adapting HERproject, our workplace-based women’s empowerment program, to meet the unique needs of smallholder farmers. It also establishes a set of implementation principles for companies interested in applying HERproject or similar training programs with smallholder farmers in their supply chains.

Our EqualiTEA programme works with smallholder tea growing families living in rural and often very isolated areas. Through a combination of technical training, encouraging tea growers to work together and providing a vital support network, the project team are working hard to transform lives and make the tea sector profitable for even the most disadvantaged farming families. We’ve been working to expand our work in India and keep reaching more smallholder tea growers. In Bangladesh our work is more pioneering – tea growing is relatively new to Bangladeshi farmers and there is a growing domestic market. We initially set up around 1,000 new tea growers in Bangladesh, but we’re now expanding the programme to help even more smallholder farmers earn a fair income in the tea sector. This programme is benefiting about 170,000 people.