|
Visit: Cafédirect
In February 2004 Biz/ed were pleased to host a live Web chat with tea farmer Cecilia Mwambebule from Tanzania. Cecilia is from the Wakulima Tea Company who sell their tea to Teadirect. Her visit to the UK was prior to Fairtrade fortnight in which Teadirect were helping to promote Fairtrade and its benefits. The chat was seen as a great opportunity to ask Cecilia about what Fairtrade means to her and her community, and how it makes a real difference to tea farmers' lives.
Teadirect is one of the fastest growing teas in the UK with sales up by 33% in the past year. (Source: IRI MAT - 52 weeks ending 27 Dec 2003) and is a blend of the finest teas from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Cafédirect recently introduced a new pricing model for tea so that now farmers receive either a guaranteed minimum price of US $1.95 (£1.23) per kilo or the auction price plus a US $0.60 (£0.40) 'Gold Standard' premium, whichever is the highest.
The live discussion took place through an online chat room where students were invited to pose Fairtrade related questions to Cecilia. A senior examiner was also on hand to answer questions of a more theoretical nature during the chat. A business profile for Cafédirect and a profile of Cecilia Mwambebule are also available.
Questions asked during the chat session have been grouped into the following sections based on topic:
- Fairtrade and promoting Fairtrade products
- Life as a tea farmer
- Tea production
- Teadirect and its products
Profile of Cecilia Mwambebule
Rungwe Small Holder Tea Growers Association
Cecilia lives with her husband and four children in a village called Syukula in Rungwe district in the southern highlands of Tanzania where approximately 600 farmers live. She currently has one acre of land where she grows tea bushes and is hoping to extend her farm by half an acre this year.
Cecilia also rears pigs and gets up at about 4.30am to feed them before making breakfast for her children and heading off to her tea farm. In high season she'll spend at least six hours plucking the green leaf tea and will employ other tea pluckers. After plucking the day's tea, Cecilia and the pluckers will set off with ventilated baskets on their backs to collection centres. Cecilia is one of 14,000 farmers who sell their tea to the Wakulima Tea Company, one of the suppliers of Teadirect Fairtrade tea.
Because Teadirect guarantees a minimum price, tea farmers always get a decent income for their tea. A premium committee made up of tea growers decides how the premiums (the difference between the auction price and the price Cafédirect pays) are used across various projects across the 108 villages in the region.
Cecilia's village is being considered by the premium committee for help with a water project, and nearby a new secondary school is being built in the Rungwe district with the help of premium funds. The additional premiums are also being used to replace roofs of the tea collection centres in the region. These metal roofs helps ensure the tea is kept dry before being transported to the factories for processing, this is essential in ensuring high quality tea.
Chat Index | Previous Section | Next Section
|
