Marks & Spencer has been working with one of its Fairtrade co-operatives, Iria-ini to launch the first Kenyan tea to be grown and packed at source. A major step forwards for the Kenyan tea industry, the retailer has worked with its Fairtrade tea farmers since 2010 to add value to the tea they grow so that they can supply high quality tea direct to both international retailers and to their home market in Kenya.
The current supply tea chain for the UK market involves importing tea in bulk for blending, packing, marketing and distribution in the UK. Tea is effectively treated as a commodity ingredient, even though most of the processing takes place at source and only the final mixing and packing stages are carried out in the UK.
Marks & Spencer have a long-standing policy of engaging with farmers, and if possible wish to move beyond the current commodity-based tea model and towards more sustainable partnerships. This will also bring the tea producer much closer to the UK customer as recommended in the Traidcraft report ‘A Fair Cup’.
Iria-ini Tea Factory comes under the umbrella of the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), but is an independent company collectively owned by local farmers. The tea is grown in the Mathira division of Nyeri North District, which is surrounded by the scenic highlands west of Mount Kenya.
Marks & Spencer provided technical and commercial support from its team of experts to ensure the Fairtrade farmers developed the skills needed to understand how to pack tea and most importantly add-value to what they were growing. A teabag packing line has now been established at Iria-ini and M&S has been working with the factory to ensure that appropriate training has been provided and the tea packing room brought up to international standards.
The project has generated a huge amount of interest in both Kenya and the UK. The Kenyan President visited the farmers and the newly built tea packing facility in November 2011 to see the production line and the first tea to be packed by the farmers at the factory.
The tea was launched at M&S in February 2012 to coincide with Fairtrade fortnight and M&S hosted a visit from Iria-ini to promote the launch which included visits to stores and knowledge sharing visits to some of their other UK based suppliers. A video of the project was shown in stores and on the M&S website to raise awareness amongst customers.
As part of their Plan A commitment to be the world’s most sustainable retailer, M&S really want to make a positive impact on the suppliers who they work with and are really proud of what this project has achieved. It’s a huge step forwards for the Kenyan tea industry - the farmers now have all the skills they need to sell their own finished tea product in their home market, whilst customers in the UK can enjoy a great tasting cup of tea that for the first time has been packed by the farmers who grew it.
From the Iria-ini perspective, they have the chance to work with M&S, leveraging their technical, product development and commercial skills but also to use the capacity created by this partnership to help them access other markets. This is extremely important - the challenge for any tea packer is to establish a point of difference in the market. Following the capacity building created as a result of this project, Iria-ini are developing the skills to pack their own teabags and market them to both local and international markets
The tea sold will generate an additional $2 -$3 per kilogram due to the fact that most of the value is being added to the product at source rather than in the UK. This should be around $30,000 for the volume supplied to M&S in year 1. Approximately 8,000 farmers supply Iria-ini and all are shareholders in the factory so benefit directly from any additional income via their annual profit share
A second order of tea has now been placed and Iria-ini are now using the knowledge and skills learnt through this project to ensure they keep this project moving forwards and grow their business beyond just supplying to Marks & Spencer.
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