KERICHO STATS 25,000 EMPLOYEES
200,000 TONS OF TEA PRODUCED ANNUALLY
11 FACTORIES
100,000 DEPENDENTS
4 HEALTH CENTERS
= 5,000
PEOPLE
= 5,000 TONS
BY THE NUMBERS
98% 20% 2015 12%
Energy needs met by renewable sources (hydroelectric and renewable fuelwood). Amount of tea bought by Lipton from Rainforest Alliance farms in 2010. Year by which all Lipton tea bags will be certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Portion of the world’s entire production of tea that Lipton buys each year.
SOURCE: WWW.LIPTON.COM
Alliance to The Ecologist, an online environmentalist magazine. “What we have said is that we need evidence and specifics so that independent auditors can follow up the allegations. Without these it would be difficult to do more than the thorough research audit conducted.” Cases such as these highlight some of the social issues that face the tea industry today as producers attempt to flesh out their roles within these tea-producing communities.
DISCRIMINATION
Like coffee, tea is mostly grown on the equatorial line, where there is also a higher concentration of poverty. This poverty is often tied to a poorly educated population, who often have no other option besides working temporary agricultural labor positions. Ethnic minorities also make up a high percentage of the agricultural worker population because of their limited options for social mobility. In 2007, ethnic conflict in Kenya reached a peak when the local tribes drove out the mostly foreign tea pickers. At least 14 people were killed 32 | BE A N A N D L E A F
at the Unilever estate during the violence. “People here feel disadvantaged, because the foreign tribes who came here to pick tea live under better conditions than them,” said Kimutai Kigen, a local barber, to Reuters. “They don’t pay rent in company houses; they get benefits.” Milstein says that companies can reap just as many benefits from corporate social responsibility efforts as the communities they invest in, especially in countries such as Kenya where risk of social upheavals is high. “They’re going to alleviate poverty, but they also may feel that there’s risk in Kenya, and by investing, they’re creating a more stable product,” he says.
LIVING CONDITIONS
Other issues of concern, especially on African tea plantations, are workers’ health and safety. In 2006, HIV was prevalent in more than 6 percent of the Kenyan population, according to AVERT, an international HIV and AIDS charity.
Lipton’s Kericho estate has been proactive in tackling this “national disaster” since early 2002, according to a case study from the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The company provides free health care to its 75,000 employees who live on the estate, and in 2009, won an award for its HIV/AIDS education, prevention treatment and care programs, said its website. Lipton also provides free housing to workers on its Kericho plantation, but the Centre has called into question how sanitary and wellmaintained these facilities are, noting that during peak tea season, the houses tend to become overcrowded. Van der Wal writes in his study that a temporary Unilever worker said to him, “You can imagine living with someone you have (a) character clash with, you are squeezed between harsh working conditions and harsh conditions at home, this is not easy for many people.” Many of the workers’ needs and wants could be solved through negotiations with Lipton, yet unions are inefficient in Kenya, which makes
them ineffective, writes van der Wal. The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers’ Union, he writes, has no work plan, no transportation and no direct access to funds. The union did have some success in helping organize a strike protesting the use of pruning technology in 2010, which it claimed would threaten jobs.
THE ENVIRONMENT
While coffee can boast of shadegrown varieties of beans that can flourish without affecting rainforests, there is no simple solution for tea at this time. Like all agricultural products, tea requires the clearing of land to grow, which leads to a decrease in biodiversity and higher soil erosion. Another energy problem in the tea industry is how the tea leaves are dried – a process that typically must happen 24 hours after the leaf is plucked. In Kenya, burning wood is generally the heating method used, which has led to tree-logging issues, writes van der Wal. Lipton has been taking active measures to address these concerns. It writes on its website, “Specifically in Kericho, 98 percent of our energy needs are from renewable sources through four hydroelectric power stations and renewable fuel wood for our factory boilers.”
SOLUTIONS?
Even though Lipton has been proactive in increasing its sustainability efforts for both the environment and its workers, these measures still have a lot of progress to make before the 2015 goal can be reached. Milstein says the sustainability trend has been on the same uptick since the 1990s and is being taken ever more seriously by businesses. Several nongovernmental organizations have sprung up in the last decade on the heels of the sustainability movement.
These third-party certification systems help businesses such as Lipton negotiate with its tea producers to identify areas where they can become more sustainable and then to find solutions and methods toward targeting those areas. Once these goals are met, the company can label its products with the proof of certification, which can raise its consumer appeal.
HOW DO PRODUCTS BECOME CERTIFIED?
HELPING HAND
Through the Sustainable Trade Initiative, a Dutch fair trade initiative involving several different crops, Lipton and other large tea companies are reaching out to now help small farmers also become more sustainable. In an email to the initiative, Pauline Oyugi, a factory unit manager of a tea factory in Kenya, writes, “The Sustainable Agriculture project has trained our farmer field school members to become agricultural experts. They are now resource persons who train the other farmers on sustainable agriculture principles on field days and during farm demonstrations.” The Ethical Tea Partnership, founded in 1997, also works to establish fair trade practices on both sides of the tea supply industry Unlike other fair trade NGOs, it’s the first partnership focused solely on issues relating to the tea sector. Weaver Street Market, a cooperative commercial center with stores in Orange County, N.C., is one store capitalizing on fair trade and certified organic foods, including tea. James Watts, head merchandiser for WSM, says that meeting customer demand isn’t the only reason they stock fair trade goods. “The reason Weaver Street Market invests in fair trade is because we think it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “Anytime you can purchase product from producers that can raise their standard of living.”
The new Rainforest Alliance’s Certification Program, through which Lipton has committed to certify all of its tea by 2015, is guided by ten principles of the Sustainable Agriculture Network: • Ensure farm’s adherence to certification standards • Conserve eco-systems • Protect wildlife • Conserve water • Provide access to decent housing, potable water and healthcare for workers and their families, and access to education for their children • Ensure safe conditions for all workers • Foster positive community relations • Practice Integrated Crop Management • Conserve soil • Manage waste responsibly to safeguard health and protect the environment To find out more information about the Rainforest Alliance, their efforts with sustainability or to make a donation, go to www.rainforestalliance.org. SOURCES: WWW.LIPTON.COM WWW.RAINFORESTALLIANCE.ORG
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