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.

The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) is a not for profit organisation whose members are companies involved in the sourcing, trading or packing of tea and also include retailers. It convenes the tea industry, development partners, NGOs and governments to improve the lives of tea workers, farmers and the environment in which they live and work.

Guidance for companies on purchasing practices, drawing on the findings of a collaborative supplier survey run in partnership between the joint ethical trading initiatives and the ILO, with support from SEDEX. The guide includes best practice examples and outlines the five key business practices that influence wages and working conditions.

The study was commissioned by Fairtrade International to investigate whether Fairtrade certification has made a difference in the lives of workers on tea plantations in India and Sri Lanka: two major tea-producing countries with high numbers of Fairtrade certified tea plantations and hired tea workers. With the implementation of the recent ‘Fairtrade Standard for Hired Labour’ in mind the study considers the following two questions: 1. How have labour conditions and collective agency of workers in Fairtrade certified plantations developed over time in comparison to non-certified plantations, and what has the role of Fairtrade certification been in this process? 2. In which ways can Fairtrade promote its impact in tea producer organizations, especially focusing on hired labour organizations?

German importers are of central importance for tea producers in Darjeeling in the state of West Bengal, northern India. Companies such as the Ostfriesische Tee Gesellschaft (OTG), Teekampagne, TeeGschwendner, and others purchase roughly a quarter of the region’s yearly tea output. In addition, they are the most important buyers of the early tea harvests (first flush and second flush), which command the highest prices. Hamburg is Europe’s central shipping terminal for tea, with almost half of all tea imports into Germany re-exported out of Germany at a high price. The price margins along the tea supply chain from Darjeeling to Germany are extremely disparate. A calculation by a German tea importer in the top price bracket (market segment A) for loose-leaf tea shows that only around 30 percent of the shelf price remains in India, with a maximum of 22 percent making it to the company that operates the plantation. The tea pluckers receive the equivalent of between 1.4 percent and 2.8 percent of the tea’s retail price in Germany.

Increasingly impacted by the varying tea production volumes in the Kericho region of Kenya, independent tea trader Finlays decided to engage in IDH’s Initiative for Sustainable Landscapes (ISLA) in Kenya, which involves collaboration between the private sector, government and NGOs. This initiative aims to ensure the stability of the future supply of tea and the longevity of the industry in Kericho by ensuring the conservation of the South West Mau Forest complex, its climatic and water regulatory functions, and the provision of sustainable energy and livelihoods for local communities.

Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) and India Foundation for Humanistic Development (IFHD) have teamed up to develop this framework. The aim of this framework is to underline opportunities for FPOs, especially the small /marginal farmers, to engage market actors by strengthening and disclosing their performance on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This assessment of the performance of the FPOs vis-à-vis SDGs, is based on a set of indicators that were developed jointly by the two organisations with inputs from experts and practitioners in the agri-food sector and validated by a group of FPOs and organisations working with FPOs from across a few states.

Around 244,500 households comprising a total population of 966,700, live in Sri Lanka’s plantation sector. Of the existing housing stock, around 160,000 (or 65 percent) were categorised in 2005 as obsolete and non-upgradable housing (generally being ‘line-rooms’ and temporary sheds); and that estimate was reaffirmed in 2015. This type of housing is urgently in need of reconstruction for the humane and hygienic living conditions of their residents. In fact, the main demand of the plantation community today, is for adequate shelter and the right to housing, land and property. This Briefing Paper looks at the historical background to the reasons for the housing crisis in the plantation sector; a brief overview of housing programmes since the privatisation of the plantations in the early 1990’s, as well as earlier advocacy in this are by the Institute of Social Development. Section 4 presents and interprets the findings of a socio-economic survey on housing rights in the plantations, conducted by the ISD in 2015 and finally summarises its main findings and makes a number of recommendations for enjoyment of the right to housing, land and property of the Plantation community.