Traditional tea has a bitter aftertaste: pesticide pollution and exploitation on the plantations. If you shop responsibly, you can do something about it. However, there is not one all-round good alternative – there are many different initiatives.
If you don’t just want to drink tea (black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong) but want to enjoy it with a clear conscience, you should follow two pieces of advice: Buy organic tea, because the pesticide load there is significantly lower. Also make sure that you really only buy fairly traded tea, because that way you can also counteract the problematic working conditions.
The problem: making a clear recommendation for “fair trade” tea is not that easy. In addition to the well-known and widespread Fairtrade seal, there is an almost unmanageable variety of initiatives. We present a small selection.
Fairtrade: higher wages, fairer conditions
The Fairtrade seal stands for better working conditions in the production countries. An important tool is the Fairtrade premium: it is paid to the local workers’ cooperative or workers’ representation and used for charitable purposes. Fairtrade prohibits discrimination, forced and child labor and requires occupational safety measures and formal employment relationships. Genetic engineering is excluded, the use of pesticides is severely restricted. There is an extra premium for organic cultivation.
The price that producers receive for their tea depends on the quality, origin and processing methods. Due to the included Fairtrade surcharge, however, it is generally slightly higher than without certification.
According to Fairtrade, the wages of the workers must be at least as high as the standard industry wages or statutory minimum wages, whichever is higher. If these are below living wages, there must be continuous wage increases. However, what is considered to be “living wage” has not yet been clearly defined. “There is currently no uniform living wage calculation system, but we are aiming for it,” says Verena Albert from the policy department of the fair trade company GEPA (see below).
Fairtrade does not guarantee physical traceability for tea. This means: If you buy 100 grams of tea with the Fairtrade seal, the pack does not necessarily have to contain 100 grams of Fairtrade tea, it can also contain conventional tea. The only thing that is certain is that the tea manufacturer bought 100 grams of Fairtrade tea – this is guaranteed by the umbrella organization FLO (Fair Labor Organisation).
Buying: Fairtrade products are available almost everywhere: in supermarkets, discounters, organic shops and supermarkets, health food stores, world shops, drugstores and in many online shops.
GEPA: stricter rules, better traceability
At GEPA, the standards go beyond those of Fairtrade. The company also does public relations and lobbying for fair trade and is a member of FLO and WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization).
A long-term trading partner of GEPA is the Indian tea producer TPI. The company pays its employees above minimum wage for every kilo of tea they pick and also invests in a pension fund for them. Unlike many other plantation operations, TPI employs workers year-round, providing them with education, health care, and electricity.
The price that GEPA pays the producers is based on their calculations; they receive a fair trade surcharge per kilo. After all, around 80 percent of all goods at GEPA come from organic cultivation. Many of the teas bear the seal of the Naturland cultivation association.
GEPA guarantees that there will be no balancing of quantities for tea. For consumers, this means that GEPA tea packs actually contain 100 percent tea from certified tea gardens. “Physical traceability is very important to us. It helps to promote not only fair trade in the minds of the people here, but above all the local producers,” says Verena Albert from GEPA.
El Puente: special support for disadvantaged groups
The non-profit El Puente focuses on trading with self-governing smallholder cooperatives and family businesses. Unlike Fairtrade International and GEPA, El Puente provides producers with up to 100 percent interest-free pre-financing of production.
The company works according to the standards of the WFTO: It makes the special support of disadvantaged groups in the producer countries a central criterion. Wages must correspond to the respective statutory minimum wages or the wages customary in the industry, whichever is higher. Living wages are also “desired” here.
According to their own statements, about 80 percent of the food range is certified organic. El Puente gets its tea from cooperatives in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Rwanda.
Buying: The products can only be found in world shops or online so far.
Direct Trade
Initiatives such as the Tea Alternative and the Tea Campaign buy certified organic tea directly from plantations in India, ship it to Germany and sell it directly to consumers in bulk. The tea alternative offers only one type of tea (Assam), the tea campaign two (Darjeeling and Assam); both support the respective region to a special degree. They can offer their products relatively inexpensively by bypassing middlemen, certifiers and complicated marketing structures.
The plantations from which the two direct traders get their tea are mostly FLO-certified. During visits to India, the companies regularly convince themselves that the workers are treated fairly. “The advantage is that I know exactly where the tea comes from and who benefits from it,” says Thomas Zimmermann from the tea alternative. “When I’m there, I look behind practically every machine.” Both initiatives support charitable projects in India with part of their proceeds.
Conclusion: Enjoying fair tea is possible
We believe: every step counts. And that’s why the most important thing is that you do something at all to counteract exploitation and environmental destruction on the tea plantations. The alternatives presented may not be perfect, but they are relatively easy to put into practice for every tea fan and just as useful as they are worthy of support.
