By FairTrade America
Producer’s Name: Johnson Kihara
Location: Kenya
Co-op name: Gacharage Tea Factory
Commodity: Tea
“Johnson Kihara is one out of approximately 5,000 tea farmers and members of Gacharagae Tea Factory some 200 kilometres north of Nairobi in Kenya. Here the farmers own their own land, harvest and pluck their own tea and deliver it to collection centers before the tea is eventually processed into black tea in the large factory close to village of Mununga.
The factory is owned jointly by the farmers through a loan which they took in 2000 with the purpose of increasing the production, raising the value of their product and generating higher revenues through better access to an international market. In 2006, the farmers chose to certify their production according to international Fairtrade standards in order to achieve a better economic, social and environmental development within both the production and at the community level. Through recurrent inspections, standards compliance are being checked to make sure that development is moving in the right direction. However, sales of the Fairtrade certified tea is crucial – without sales, development may cease.
In 2015, Gacharage Fairtrade sales amounted to just three percent of their total production. The rest was sold as conventional tea and thus without the Fairtrade premium that every kilo of sold Fairtrade certified tea otherwise generates. Despite these low sales, Fairtrade premium through their sales amounted to almost 150,000 USD, funds that the farmers have chosen to invest in e.g. trainings on sustainable production, road improvements, electricity, water supply, new classrooms, school material, scholarships to students and a number of income generating projects.”