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See also the following sections of this website:

• Food & beverage companies
• Agriculture industry
• Coffee industry

Standards and guidelines:

Code of Conduct for the Tea Sector (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations [IUF], Oct. 1996)

Ethical Trading Initiative

Websites:

Tea [Fair Trade Tea] (TransFair USA)

Tea Sourcing Partnership

Other materials:

2003:

Tea gardens' labourers in distress [Bangladesh] - Thousands of people engaged as labourers in the tea gardens of Sylhet region have been leading a sub-human existence for years together. These ill-fated people are deprived of basic rights-- food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare-- some tea labourers told this correspondent with an air of utter despondency. (Independent [Bangladesh], 13 Mar. 2003)

Sale of Fairtrade products doubles [UK] - Sales of goods that promise a better deal for farmers in developing countries have more than doubled in three years, it was announced at the weekend...Sainsbury's now sells around 1 million Fairtrade bananas a week, and has own-brand coffee, tea, and chocolate that carry the Fairtrade certification mark. Last November the Co-op supermarket chain announced it was switching all its own-brand chocolate to Fairtrade. (David Brown, Guardian [UK], 3 Mar. 2003)

Retail therapy - Awareness of how and where goods are produced has soared - and so has the fair trade movement -...Now there are more than 100 products, ranging from tea, coffee and bananas to sugar, wine, honey, fruits, juices, snacks and biscuits, chilli peppers and meat. Coming next are fair trade clothes and textiles, and fair trade footballs...To go truly mainstream, though, fair trade must occupy more than a remote shelf in a supermarket. There are the first signs that that is happening as the Co-op and Safeway supermarkets start their own fair trade lines. (John Vidal, Guardian [UK], 26 Feb. 2003)

2002:

Police shoot dead Indian tea worker - An Indian labourer was killed and at least five others injured when police opened fire on protesters at a tea plantation in West Bengal. (BBC News, 26 June 2002)

{···français} Travail égal, salaires égaux [Ile Maurice]: Vers la ratification de deux conventions [du Bureau international du travail] par le gouvernement - La Convention 100 traite du paiement de salaires égaux aux hommes et femmes pour travail égal et la Convention 111 traite de la non-discrimination dans le travail et dans la classification des postes...Le BIT a identifié plusieurs Remunerations orders couvrant des secteurs où les salaires et la classification des postes se font sur la base du sexe. Ces Remunerations orders concernent l'industrie théière; le bétail; les salines; l'industrie sucrière; les vergers; les boulangeries; et le service traiteur. (Le Mauricien [Ile Maurice], 1 juin 2002)

Violence against women in the workplace in Kenya: Assessment of workplace sexual harassment in the commercial agriculture and textile manufacturing sectors in Kenya [based on survey research in the coffee, tea & light manufacturing industries] (International Labor Rights Fund, May 2002)

Toxic Tea Tangle: Political machinations shroud safeguards to weed out pesticide-laden tea supplies [India/Germany] (Down to Earth, Centre for Science and Environment [India], 15 Apr. 2002)

Kenya: Child labourers hit 3 million mark -...Labour Commissioner Abisai Ambenge...identified some of the areas where child labour is rampant including salt harvesting in Malindi, miraa farming in Meru North, and tea and coffee plantations in Central, Eastern and Rift Valley Provinces (Child Labour News Service, 15 Apr. 2002)

Food for thought: Corporate Social Responsibility for food and beverage manufactures -  An introduction for policy-setters and operational managers, featuring best practice from eight leading companies in the food and beverage sector. [includes reference to social & environmental issues; cocoa, coffee, tea & banana sectors; Tea Sourcing Partnership in the UK; Chiquita/Rainforest Alliance's 'Better Banana Project'] (Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, Mar. 2002)

Tanzania: Official condemns tea plantation companies over child labour (Child Labour News Service, 1 Jan. 2002)

• Values in the supply chain - In Focus 3: The full report - Value Chains: Lessons from the Kenya tea and Indonesia cocoa sectors - Report (Ally Bedford, Mick Blowfield, Duncan Burnett and Peter Greenhalgh; Natural Resources Institute, Resource Centre for the Social Dimensions of Business Practice, 2002)

• Value chains [supply chains]: Presentation by Mick Blowfield, Natural Resources Institute, based on Resource Centre discussion forum - Tuesday 6th February 2001 (Resource Centre for the Social Dimensions of Business Practice)

• Pilot project: Values in the supply chain [partners: Natural Resources Institute, International Cocoa Organisation, Cocoa Association of London, Mars, Cadbury, ED&F Man, Tea Sourcing Partnership] (Resource Centre for the Social Dimensions of Business Practice)

2001:

Honey-hunters to face Kenyan government in court: On October 4th, the Ogiek will face the Kenyan government again in court to protect their land. The Ogiek (sometimes referred to as 'Dorobo') are a small tribe who live in the Mau mountain forest overlooking Kenya's Rift Valley. As former hunter-gatherers they are looked down on by their pastoralist neighbours. They still partly depend on hunting, and gathering honey and wild plants. Ever since colonial times, governments have tried to evict them from the forest, allegedly to protect the environment. Yet at the same time the forest is being taken over by logging companies, tea plantations and farms. The Ogiek, however, have always trickled back. (Survival International, Sep. 2001)