Wolfgang Weinmann,
producer partnership manager,
Cafédirect explains our
consultation process …
"The company's revised minimum price structure for 2007 was decided upon following a comprehensive consultation process with all our tea partners in East Africa. The first step involved collating data from all groups on their cost of production per kilogram of tea. This was then used to draw up a minimum tea price for 2007.
A number of issues were considered in the process of drawing up this proposal, such as how to reflect and reward quality within the new pricing structure and how to ensure that everyone-farmers, organisations and communities- shared in the benefits of Fairtrade.
The proposal was sent to all partners for discussion during workshops held in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya) and Fort Portal (Uganda). Representatives from the board, factory and Fairtrade Premium Committee (which decides where extra Fairtrade ‘Premium’ money is spent within the community) of each of our partner organisations attended.
Discussions were lively, interactive and extremely positive, with all of our partners recognising the proposal as a fair and innovative one - with benefits to individual farmers, as well as helping to strengthen the organisation and reward quality. Many of the participants also recognised it as a useful development to feed into their discussions with FLO on the establishment of an International Fairtrade minimum price for tea."
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Discussions take place in Tanzania between Cafédirect personnel and tea growers.
grading
tea quality
At Cafédirect we grade the quality of tea on a scale from 1 to 7, with 7 being the highest. With this new tea pricing policy, the minimum price Cafédirect now pays for tea varies between $1.65 and $1.78 per kilo, depending on the grade.
No other Fairtrade company pays this minimum price, and additionally Cafédirect pay a premium of 50 euro cents per kilo to tea partners.