A recent article in the Times On Line, “Tea workers still waiting to reap Fairtrade benefits” by Parminder Bahra reveals the contradictions the fair trade system has brought upon itself by embracing large scale plantations into a structure originally created to benefit small scale farmers in the developing world. In the Times article, tea workers in Kenya claim to have been denied the promised benefits of fair trade and “suspect that the scheme is being used to make estates appear socially responsible as demand increases in the West for Fairtrade-labelled goods.”
We are not surprised to hear of these shortcomings and abuses occurring on Fair Trade plantations. In fact, the findings presented in this article only serve to reaffirm our belief that plantations do not belong in the Fair Trade system in the first place. Equal Exchange doesn’t debate whether “good” plantations exist (for example, those where workers are treated “well”), nor whether estate workers deserve to enjoy better working conditions. They do.
Since its founding in 1986, Equal Exchange has held to the belief that the very nature of plantations is antithetical to the goals of Fair Trade, namely:
- to strengthen the autonomy of small farmer organizations;
- build a sense of ownership and control over one’s business;
- encourage entrepreneurial attitudes and a risk-taking culture;
- strengthen and build community; and
- practice and strengthen debate and participatory decision-making.
We believe that “Fair Trade” needs to mean “Small Farmer,” and that the standards which apply to Fair Trade coffee can and should be the sole standard in tea as well as coffee.
Fair Trade has achieved dramatic results in building market access for small farmers who would otherwise not have the means to invest in their business and take the necessary risks to establish markets in their own countries – let alone in the global arena. This preferential market access has been very powerful in building a link between consumers in the North and marginalized small farmers in the Global South. The multiplier effect of this market access and network of Fair Traders has had huge impact on small farmer communities.
Plantations do not need this market access. In the U.S., 98% of the tea that is sold as Fair Trade comes from plantations. Plantation owners have networks within the banking, government and export sectors of their countries. One could argue that there is almost no additional economic or social benefit deriving from Fair Trade plantation products.
Further, plantations or “estates” as they are often called, have been accused for decades of exploiting workers. Having changed little in a century, they tend to be run as small kingdoms. For these and other reasons, the role of tea plantations in Fair Trade has always been controversial from the outset. Historically, the two Fair Trade certifying agencies Max Havelaar and Transfair were locked in fundamental battle about whether plantation tea could ever really be “Fair Trade.” This was the core reason that the two organizations could not join forces. When they finally did merge in 1997, Transfair’s vision of a Fair Trade system which included virtually all models of farm production, won out and tea plantations were allowed into the system.
Equal Exchange and others believe that no matter how “benevolent” a plantation owner is, a joint labor-management council and social premiums cannot in and of themselves correct the huge imbalance of power that exists on a plantation. We just don’t believe that deep, structural goals oriented to change the playing field for small farmers can be achieved in a plantation setting. For these reasons, we are committed to building market access for small farmer tea organizations, just as we are doing in the coffee and cocoa industries.
As always, great post from you and Equal Exchange. The question of plantations in the Fair Trade system always has me torn.
I posed a question on my blog after I put up this blog post about next steps for the Fair Trade movement. I completely understand and am wary about the continued abuses reported on tea estates, and plantations in general, however the Fair Trade system continues to let them enter the system. What are the next steps that the movement can take toward progress? I am not sure if the Fair Trade certifiers are going to stop allowing plantations into the system, so how do we all work together to keep credibility in the movement? Demand for reform in the inspections? Stricter screening processes for plantations?
Fair Trade has done, and continues to, bring positive changes to small-scale farmers, but do plantations have no hope of reform with the help of Fair Trade?
Sorry for all the questions. Thanks in advance for offering your insight. I really value yours and Equal Exchange’s viewpoint.
Best,
Zarah
Zarah,
Many thanks to you for generating such interest on your web-site about this issue… and for all the other great posts related to Fair Trade. The discussion, and the energy, are great! In terms of your questions above, I’ll just give you some of my thoughts and others here can weigh in if they like.
A few years ago, at a membership meeting of FLO that several folks from Equal Exchange attended, there was – as always – much consternation about the fact that FLO was allowing plantations into the system. A number of producer organizations, in particular the CLAC – the Coordinating Body of Small Producers from Latin America and the Caribeean – and the African Fairtrade Network (AFN) were calling for a moratorium on new plantations into the system pending a review of the impacts. Producers and many traders were concerned whether benefits would really reach the workers and whether plantations in the system would adversely affect small farmer organizations who typically don’t have the same level of financial resources, market or credit access.
That hasn’t happened.
One of my concerns is over potential conflicts of interest. Typically, when organizations concerned about worker rights discover labor abuses on a plantation, part of the strategy to force change is to publicize the situation and put pressure on the plantation owners to improve conditions. When these same abuses are discovered on a Fair Trade plantation, it is against the interests of the certifying bodies to let these scandals fully come to light.
Personally, I believe that working conditions on plantations are better addressed by those organizations in the labor movement with a history, and effective strategies, to bring change. I just don’t believe that the Fair Trade system is the best place, despite all well intentions, to have impact. Perhaps what is needed is a separate third party certification system for “socially responsible plantations” that would be overseen by a more appropriate body with the experience, credibility and teeth to make a difference?
Thanks for continuing to ask good questions Zarah.
What do others think?
in response to Zarah’s question “What are the next steps that the movement can take toward progress?”
I’ve a suggestion (just personally – not officially on behalf of Equal Exchange):
For those truly decent plantations they can get their good practices certified by Rainforest Alliance. This gives them credit for what they’re doing while also enabling the Fair Trade movement to re-dedicate itself to small-farmers.
For conscientious importers/manufacturers they can make fuller use of the CO-OPERATIVES that are already on the FLO register &/or follow Equal Exchange’s lead and spend some time seeking out new co-op partners.
For retailers and advocacy groups, they can learn who is working with co-ops and seek them out.
Advocacy groups can also add this facet to the ongoing Fair Trade education programs and, at minimum, edit out anything they now use that implies that Fair Trade tea, flowers, wine, etc supports small farmers. Currently many broad statements about Fair Trade do just that.
Beyond that I’d like to remind folks that:
– Fair Trade was not created so as to merely create a “kinder, gentler” form of commerce that raised wages, etc. while leaving unchanged the basic structures of ownership and control. To do so would be to accept the status quo and the inequitable distribution of land, power, and other resources they have made plantations not only economically possible but inevitable. To extend Fair Trade certification to plantations is to try to ameliorate a bad situation, not to end it.
The aim of Fair Traders in the 1980’s was always more radical than this. Among other goals (like reconnecting consumers and farmers) it was to challenge rural elites such as plantation owners and other large land holders, merchants and exporters who for so long possessed vastly disproportionate economic and political power in their regions, a power they abused more often than not.
Hence Fair Trade’s core element of connecting northern importers (ideally committed Fair Traders or ‘alternative trade organizations’ as they were called back in the day) with democratic cooperatives of small farmers. So rather than try to get a better wage for person X on the Peruvian plantation or Mexican hacienda the goal was to do a complete end-around the local elites by creating a chance for folks like person X to farm his/her own land and work with his/her neighbors within a cooperative and become their own exporters and so on.
It was to get to at least some of the roots of what was so wrong in much of countryside in places ranging from Oaxaca to Sri Lanka.
I think it’s telling that a worker on a Fair Trade certified cut-flower plantation in Kenya, David Gikundi, HAD previously been a small-scale tea grower, but we can assume left it when he couldn’t make a living selling tea. (He’s mentioned in this 2006 Guardian article critiquing the Fair Trade flower industry http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/feb/13/gifts.kenya )
Wouldn’t we all like to see small-scale tea growers like Mr. Gikundi have the chance to make a go of it on his own land, rather than be forced to become a plantation laborer? Yet, the Fair Trade industry’s overwhelming focus on, and promotion of, tea plantations leaves small-farmers and their co-operatives out of the picture, and thereby is setting its aspirations way too low.
I’m a tea drinker. (I don’t drink coffee.)
Which fair trade companies sell tea that comes from small producers?
Who are the small producers of tea that constitute the 2% of Fair Trade Certified tea?
Simon,
Besides Equal Exchange, Serrv International and Alter Eco also sell Fair Trade tea from small producers.
As for small tea producers that are certified Fair Trade, I’m aware of SOFA in Sri Lanka, Wupperthal and Heiveld in South Africa, and a handful of groups in India. I’d be interested to learn about others that you may know.
Phyllis
There are also a number of Fair Trade registered small-scale tea grower co-ops in east Africa, maybe in Uganda and Tanzania. And they’ve been up & running since at least the late 90’s when I first learned of them. So they’ve been around.
I’m also pretty sure there are small grower co-ops in Vietnam and Nepal.
I’ll look into this and try to give more specifics.
Simon,
I’ve just reviewed the official FLO register of approved Fair Trade tea producers, which numbers 77 in all.
Unfortunately they don’t provide any indication of which are small-scale growers or plantations, not even when you drill down.
But going by some clues and some google searches and past knowledge I could determine that at least 15 groups are of small-scale farmers.
They are:
Co-op Agricole du Kendougou (Burkina Faso)
Mineral Spring Sanjukta Vikas (India)
PDS/Sahayadri (India)
Sukambizi (Malawi)
COCLA – Peru
SORWATHE (Rwanda)
Wupperthal (South Africa)
Heiveld (South Africa)
SOFA (Sri Lanka)
Rungwe (Tanzania)
Mpanga (Uganda)
Kayonza (Uganda)
Mabale (Uganda)
Igara (Uganda)
Thien Hoang Organic Tea Club (Vietnam)
I guess the Nepalese I had heard of were not in fact registered or were kicked off the list at some point.
Phyllis and Rodney:
Thank you for sharing your research on the Fair Trade Certified small-scale tea producers.
I checked out the Exchange Exchange website and read that “Our fairly traded organic teas are sourced directly from India, Sri Lanka, and South Africa with the small-scale farmer in mind.”
By stating “in mind,” does that mean that EE is aiming for – but has not yet achieved – sourcing all of its tea from small-scale farmers?
I don’t mean that as criticism of EE. I am assuming that it is simply not yet possible for a coop of the size of EE to source all of its tea from small-scale farmers. And I respect the commitment and efforts of EE to try to achieve this as soon as possible.
Am I correct in my assumption? Or am I wrong?
I only ask out of keen interest in fair trade and a desire to make every cup of tea I drink supportive of small-scale tea farmers.
And after checking the EE tea selection, I’m planning an order of some of the new loose-leaf teas.
~Simon
Simon,
We only wish more folks out there were paying as close attention as you are.
And while we respect your politeness, there’s no need to hold back. If you, or any one, DOES wish to air criticisms we welcome it. Sometimes that is the only way to really reach the crux of an issue.
Let me tackle your Q in bullet pt fashion (just for expediency):
– When we began our research for a Fair Trade tea line in 1997 we wanted it to be:
* Organic
* from a small farmer organization
* high quality
* from a Fair Trade certified producer
– At that time no producer group met all 4 criteria
– Both our own environmental commitments and the nature of the U.S. marketplace made organic essential. A non-organic Fair Trade tea was very unlikely to be commercially viable.
– there were NON-organic, FT-certified small-scale tea growers in East Africa, but there was little prospect of them soon gaining organic certification and their relationship with the local tea processor (aka “factory”) was unexciting in the big picture and offered poor prospects of leading to the farmers working their way up the value chain one day.
– Conversely we soon learned that a remarkable man, Binod Mohan, who ran TPI (Tea Promoters of India) and whose tea gardens were used as the original template for Fair Trade tea certification, and who was the original champion of organic farming in Darjeeling, was actively trying to bring neighboring small-farmer co-ops into the premium, organic tea business. Further, he was already exploring partnerships with dedicated Fair Trade importers like ourselves and Drittwelt of Germany to whom TPI could export high quality, organic Fair Trade tea that included small-farmer tea leaf along with leaf from TPI’s own FT certified estates. Along the way he would continue to train the small-farmer co-ops in organic methods and on how to grow and harvest high quality tea. They would initially supply a small % of leaf to the blends and as they improved their operations and the yield on their plots they could supply higher %’s. The goal that TPI, Drittwelt, Equal Exchange and others shared was to provide an otherwise unheard of opportunity for small-scale growers to develop into self-sufficent, organic, tea growers & processors & one day even exporters.
– So in 1998 we began a partnership with TPI and introduced 3 bagged teas (which we still have: English Breakfast, Green, and Earl Grey) that blends TPI’s leaf with that from the Sanjukta Vikas (aka “Mineral Springs”) co-op.
– I don’t recall what the % of small farmer tea leaf was and I don’t know what it is now.
– More recently (2007) we introduced 3 more bagged teas (some with TPI’s direct participation, or at least their advice) with increased %’s of small-farmer tea leaf. This includes our Irish Breakfast (with 75?% leaf from the Sahyadri co-op in Kerala, http://www.equalexchange.coop/sahyadri-farmers-consortium), Green Magic (100% small farmer leaf from Sri Lanka), & Rooiboos (100% small farmer leaf).
– In 2007 we also introduced 4 premium loose leaf teas. At least both of the Ceylon teas are 100% small farmer leaf. I don’t know the %’s on the other 2.
– And in 2008 we introduced the 5 premium, large leaf, 100% small-farmer, pyramid bag teas (which are replacing the loose-leaf line).
SO, I think you see the trajectory of our program and how we have been trying to increase small-farmers access not only to the export market in general but also to the: high quality AND organic AND – most of all – the Fair Trade market.
What are the prices paid to small farmers for their tea at the moment? I am in Sri Lanka now and have just been to a big factory supplied by small farmers and would like to compare the various prices and costs. Thanks.
Maggiejo,
Unlike the straightforward pricing formula for Fair Trade coffee the formulas for tea are many and complex.
For starters there are 4 variables:
– the production method (ie is it cut-tear-curl or the “orthodox” method?)
– is it fannings & dust or a larger leaf category?
– Is it Organic certified or not?
– And depending on the answers to the 1st 3 questions, there might be a different price based on which country it was grown in.
If you can tell us those variables, we’ll try to calculate what the Fair Trade price should be.
With that said if you, or other readers, what to delve into this yourselves, including the critical element of the provision of affordable financing for producer groups, you’ll need to read at two documents.
The first is the “small producer organization standards” for tea:
Click to access 02-09_Tea_SPO_EN.pdf
Too often folks only look at the price paid, when it is in fact only one variable in the financial welfare of the Fair Trade growers, albeit the easiest to grasp. Getting access to credit is important, too. At Equal Exchange we’re very proud of our credit program and lament that far too often other Fair Trade buyers do not actually deliver on this – something that is not contested as so many growers are not in a position to push back.
In this document you’ll see that:
“On request from the producer, the Fair Trade payer must make up to 60% of the value of the contract available as pre-finance to the producer at any time after signing the contract. The pre-finance must be available at least six weeks prior to shipment.”
p. 5 of that document describes the pricing like this (I paraphrase):
“For all organic teas and for conventional teas made by the orthodox method (except fannings and dust) there is not Fair Trade minimum price. The paid price is a negotiated price between the seller and buyer. On top of the negotiated price the Fair Trade Premium must be paid.
For conventional teas made using the cut-tear-curl method and for conventional fannings and dust made by the orthodox method the buyer will deduct U.S.10¢ per kilogram from each Fair Trade premium payment. This amount will be paid directly to the producer, and must be used to support improvements in working conditions as part of ongoing certification and compliance with Fair Trade standards.
But the more substantial information is to be found at the shockingly long Fair Trade pricing table at;
Click to access Feb09_Fairtrade_Minimum_Price_and_Premium_table_EN.pdf
You’ll see that for tea alone there are over 20 different pricing formulas that vary according to the type of tea and where it was grown.
For some tea there is no Fair Trade minimum price. For others it is as high as $2 per kilogram.
The Fair Trade premiums range from 50¢ to $1.10 per kilogram
Dear Rodney and Equal Exchange,
I was really interested to see this discussion going on…
My wife and I run a school for young people from the tea estates in Maskeliya, Sri Lanka… we have some students from fair trade estates but most are not… we have a reach of 23 estates in terms of where our students come from… (www.tealeaftrust.com)
I am also doing a Masters and wanting to do my dissertation on a comparison between FT and non-FT estates with a particular focus on whether FT changes the aspiration level of these communities in any way as what they suffer from to an upsetting degree is a poverty of aspiration. I would be really interested in any literature you know of in this area and whether this dissertation topic could be honed to fill a gap in research and knowledge.
With rates of alcoholism amongst the male tea estate community at around 85% and violence against women at 83% (including 20% sexual) there are complex issues that need to be addressed and I don’t see or hear about any FT estate initiatives.
The most worrying thing for me is that the students who are from FT estates often don’t realise it… I can’t see that anyone working for a small farmer cooperative would not know if it was FT when they were 18…
I do hope we can open some communication regarding this or you can put me in touch with people who may have knowledge/ interest in the subject.
Many thanks and great website,
Tim
Hi Tim,
Here is some literature that could help you, especially the first item (by Lindsay Moore):
http://www.fairtrade-institute.org/db/authors/view/514
“Fractured Ties: the business of development in Kenyan Fair Trade Tea” by Catherine Dolan Catherine.Dolan@sbs.ox.ac.uk
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5429873.ece
Click to access ft_malawi_tea_report_aw2_small.pdf