For a number of tea producing countries, export is of a great
importance. There is however, a worldwide crisis in the sector. Because
of over production, tea prices in the world-market are historically
low. As such the problems worsen where the tea producers have for
decades already dealt with bad working conditions, such as low wages,
child labour and forms of forced labour, environmental problems such as
pesticide-pollution and land degradation (erosion and deforestation).
Whereas the crisis especially hits employees at tea plantations as well
as small tea producers, (multinational) tea companies benefit from the
low raw material prices, which are not passed on to consumers. Special
interest groups of producers and plantation employees in the south,
call for structural changes.
SOMO examines the specific properties of this sector, especially the
influence of international trade and distribution on the production
process and the production circumstances in developing countries.
News Tea
21-05-2010
Alongside carrying out research, SOMO regularly gives training and advice to social organisations in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in the context of building capacity and spreading knowledge. In March, SOMO gave a training to Chinese social organisations in order to deploy CSR effectively in the promotion of sustainable agriculture in sectors such as tea. Furthermore, SOMO issued advice to the research of a coalition of consumer organisations. This advice was targeted at their research methodology for a study into the effects of spending at European supermarkets for food suppliers in developing countries.
14-05-2009
At the Unilever shareholders’ meeting today, the Dutch trade union FNV, the international trade union for food workers IUF and other interested parties, such as VBDO, raised the issue of the working conditions of workers in Pakistan, India and Kenya.
14-09-2007
During a workshop in Darjeeling (India) the key economic, social and environmental issues that need attention in the global tea trade were discussed by more than 50 civil society organizations, academics, trade unions, industry representatives (plantations and small-growers).
