In our first episode of Season 2 of the CRIB Podcast, we hear an insightful conversation with Ines Kaempfer, CEO of The Center for Child Rights in Business, and Shabnam Weber, President of the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada, recorded at the Colombo Tea Convention in July 2024.

The discussion explores wages and prices in the tea industry, the impact of human rights due diligence laws on business models, particularly in Europe, successful initiatives by the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada, including a global campaign called “Tea Power” and an education programme promoting tea knowledge, and the importance of collaborative efforts to address industry challenges and promote sustainable practices.

One of the key challenges faced by the tea industry is fair pricing, which affects everyone along the supply chain, but in particular those in the upstream such as farmers, pickers and smallholders. Fair pricing not only relates to the wages given to workers, but also to the value and price of tea on the markets.

"The biggest issue within this industry, and we've heard this quite a bit is tea is too cheap...Consumers do not pay enough for their product. Our product is used as a loss leader by supermarkets. And that has to stop. And I really believe that we as an industry need to take control back into our hands. And, you know, we've talked about things like increasing the quality of the product, in order to increase the value, not to be chasing just yield and quantity, right? Because that is going to drive down the price of tea. But more than anything, I think that we need to stop, truly refuse, to sell tea below the cost of production, because that's what's happening right now. There is no other product, nothing that you can name me, that would sell to a consumer for less than what it costs to make it." Shabnam Weber, President of the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada.

Tune in to hear the full conversation.