Ethical Tea Partnership Starts Engagement with China Tea Sector - 01|02|2006

ETP to start monitoring in S America: plans for S. India and China

Major strides have been taken in the expansion of the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), which monitors workers' conditions on tea estates around the world, with its signing up of tea producers in Argentina and Brazil.

And now the ETP - the non-commercial alliance of major tea packing companies in the UK, Europe and North America working together for a responsible and ethical tea supply chain – is preparing to engage with producers in southern India and China. 

This month sees the start of monitoring at the first of 17 Argentine and two Brazilian tea estates, extending the ETP's influence to nine tea producing countries that together account for more than 65 per cent of world tea exports.

The ETP monitoring programme is already the largest independent initiative of its kind, with the potential of positively impacting on the lives of 1.6 million tea workers around the world.

 By mid 2006, it plans to have extended its activities even further -- to southern India and to have gained a foothold in the tea estates of China.  And by 2008, every tea producing country supplying ETP members will be covered by the monitoring programme.

Executive director Gavin Bailey said: "Bringing the South American tea estates into our monitoring programme is a significant development for ETP, but we are now preparing to engage with producers in southern India in March and with China a couple of months later. 
 
"Our objective is to ensure that the social and ethical conditions involved in growing the tea that our members buy, at a minimum, meet the local laws, and employer-worker (trade union) agreements.

"We are currently monitoring more than 600 tea estates but we’re keen to cover the whole our of members' supply base and to have started monitoring across the three continents - Asia, Africa, and South America - by 2008," Dr Bailey said

The ETP operates through independent monitoring in the six key areas of tea estate life: employment (including minimum age and wage levels), education, maternity, health and safety, housing..  And where issues are identified, ETP works with the estates to ensure improvements are made within realistic time frames.

The 18 UK and overseas members of Ethical Tea Partnership are:  Accord Tea Services Ltd, Matthew Algie & Co Ltd, Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate Ltd, D J Miles & Co Ltd, Drie Mollen, Finlay Beverages Limited. Gold Crown Foods Ltd, Imporient UK Ltd, Keith Spicer Ltd, Metropolitan Tea Co Ltd, The Nambarrie Tea Company Ltd, Sara Lee/DE, The Tetley Group, R Twining & Company Ltd, Unilever (Europe), Tazo Tea Company, Williamson Fine Teas Ltd, The Windmill Tea Co Ltd.

BACKGROUND
Argentina:  Tea is grown in the north-east of the country, in the highlands of the Misiones and Corrientes provinces, bordering Brazil and Paraguay.  The climate is ideal in the tea growing season of November-May, hot and humid.  Tea has been actively grown in Argentina since the 1950s although the first seeds are thought to be been introduced from Russia in the 1920s.
Argentina now exports around 50 million kilos pf tea annually, mostly to the United States where is it particularly sought for iced tea. Tea production is Argentina is highly mechanised, the plantations being relatively flat.

Brazil: produces around five million kilos of tea annually, all of its grown around Registro in the state of Sao Paulo.  Although there is a similar tea growing season to that of Argentina (October-April) the types of tea grown are in many respects more similar to African teas than Argentine.
Brazil teas are used primarily in iced tea blends but are also well suited to hot tea blends.

South India: produces roughly 24 per cent of India's tea and employs more than 200,000 people.  Tea is grown in south India in the states of Tamilnadu (74,000 hectares approx), Kerala (36,000 ha) and Karnataka (2,000 ha) together accounting for some 112,000 hectares.
South India has a perennial cropping system providing a continuous supply of tea, although the best quality is produced between December and February.  The region has diverse agro-climatic zones, and this together with different soil types, altitudes and the combination of rain and sun, produces a wide variety of teas.

China: produces around 18 per cent of world tea exports, offering a wider variety of teas than any other country - green, black, oolong, white, scented as well as a host of special teas, some hand-made. 75 per cent of the world’s green tea is produced in China. The tea production season runs March/April to end September.  Tea is grown between 15 and 35 degrees latitude, from subtropical Hainan Island in the extreme south to just north of the Yangzi River. 
Zhejiang province on the east coast is the home of green tea production while black tea is grown mainly in Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan and Anhui.  Fujian Province is the main production area for jasmine and other scented tea as well as white and oolong varieties. 

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