Summary
Of the 36 world tea producers, 19 are ACP countries,
including the third largest producer, Kenya, which is also the
world’s largest exporter. Tea is grown both on plantations and
by small growers, and is mainly sold by auction, but the
industry is dominated by a few vertically integrated
companies, and there have been charges of collusion. Although
price trends have been downwards, and in real terms producers
now receive less than half what they did 30 years ago, output
continues to rise. The EU is an important market for ACP
countries and applies no tariffs (with a minor exception).
There are a number of areas in which the EU could help ACP
producers, for example by acting with them to reduce the abuse
of dominant market positions by large companies. It could also
help to promote the use of Geographical Indications and could
expand its ‘aid for trade’ financing. The fair-trade market is
of growing significance, and other ‘luxury purchase’
developments could yield higher earnings for responsive
producers in the future.
1. The international tea market
1.1 Market break-down
There are two major types of tea, black and green. Black
tea accounts for around 75% of global production and over 90%
of the market in Western countries. Black tea results from
leaves that are fully oxidised, while green tea leaves are
steamed, rolled and dried without any oxidation. Most green
tea is grown in China and is gaining popularity in the West,
partly for health reasons.
FAO projections for the ten years to 2017 indicate that
world black tea production will grow at 1.9% annually from
about 2.5 million tonnes in 2006 to reach 3.1 million tonnes
while world green tea production is expected to grow at a
considerably faster rate of 4.5% annually to reach 1.57
million tonnes.
It believes that in these years the expansion of tea
production could substantially exceed growth in consumption,
with the current situation of market balance being transformed
into one of growing surplus production. This could serve both
to depress prices and reduce ‘returns to producers in
developing countries’. In this context increasing attention is
being paid to ‘expanding consumption in producing countries’
and getting to grips with the challenge of establishing
quality standards. According to the FAO ‘better quality should
increase demand while preventing low-quality tea from being
traded should curtail the over-supply situation in the world
tea market.
1.2 Global production and consumption
Tea is grown in 36 tropical and semi-tropical countries, 19
of them ACP countries. The six largest producing countries -
India, China, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Indonesia (in that
order) - account for 80% of world output. Less than half of
production is exported, as India and China, in particular, are
major consumers as well as producers.
Global tea production has grown by around 2% a year since
1993-95, but consumption in Western countries has grown by
barely 1%. In a number of developing countries, however,
consumption has kept pace with, or exceeded production. Global
production grew by over 3% to 3.65 million tonnes in 2006.
World tea consumption grew by 1% in 2006, reaching 3.64
million tonnes. China’s total consumption overtook that in
India, following an increase of 13.6%. For India, the annual
tea consumption growth at 2.51 percent was considerably higher
than the annual trend of 1.6% on average over the previous
decade.
In 2006 China accounted for 28.8% of world output, followed
by India, 24.5% and Kenya and Sri Lanka on 8.5% each.
Tea production
|
Main world producers and leading ACP producers
|
Production in 2006 (tonnes) |
|
China |
1,049,500 |
|
India |
892,730 |
|
Sri Lanka |
310,800 |
|
Kenya |
310,580 |
|
Turkey |
204,600 |
|
Indonesia |
171,410 |
|
Malawi |
38,387 |
|
Uganda |
34,334 |
|
Tanzania |
30,300 |
|
Zimbabwe |
22,000 |
|
Rwanda |
16,000 |
|
World total |
3,649,491 |
|
Source: FAO |
|
As China, India and Sri Lanka are also major consumers of
tea they fall behind Kenya as the major exporter. In 2005 ACP
countries account for only about 13% of production, but 29% of
exports. Beyond Kenya, other ACP exporters represent only 8%
of total exports, Uganda, Malawi and Tanzania exporting more
than 20 000 tonnes each in 2005.
1.3 How the tea market works
Tea is unusual among major agricultural commodities in that
it is sold through auctions or in private deals, increasingly
on-line. Unlike coffee or cocoa, there is no futures market
for tea.
There are two auction centres in ACP countries, both in
Africa. The major centre in Mombasa, Kenya, offers between
60,000 and 90,000 packages of tea every week, with teas mainly
from Kenya, but also from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zaire.
The other auction centre, in Limbe, Malawi, sells teas from
Malawi and occasionally from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Due to the seasonal nature of Malawi's tea production, the
auction operates weekly for the six months of the season -
between December and May - and fortnightly thereafter.
On-line tea auctions have recently been set up alongside
traditional auctions. These speed up access to information and
facilitate participation. Bids can be submitted at any time
and the sale process is not geographically confined.
Transaction cycle times and the stages in handling are
reduced. Also, teas need not be transported to warehouses as
inspections can be done using samples couriered to buyers from
the plantations.
Although the auction system would seem to approximate a
'fair market' in which prices are determined solely by the
interplay of supply and demand, the system does not always
work well for small-scale producers. Auction prices vary
considerably with both the quality and quantity of tea on
offer, and the demand for tea at any given time.
There is evidence of collusion among brokers to influence
prices. A number of investigations have revealed 'a high
degree of collusion that prevails in buying and ... wide scope
for collusion between brokers and buyers'. Such collusion, if
it occurred, would tend to reduce the price at which producers
could sell tea at the auctions, and would also affect prices
of direct sales. Indeed, in 2005 the situation was deemed so
bad the Kenyan National Chamber of Commerce called for the
elimination of tea auctions.
The extent of this alleged collusion by buyers raises
important issues of competition policy, of the kind the EU has
routinely taken action against in the sugar sector within the
EU.
1.4 International producers and traders
A small number of companies dominate the tea industry. They
have a presence at almost all stages of the journey of tea
from tea bush to tea bag or packet. The companies buy their
tea at an early stage of production, and usually carry out the
high-value-added blending and packaging (which account for 80%
of the retail price), at facilities in the EU and other
Western countries.
Blending means that many tea qualities have become
exchangeable and are bought wherever they are cheapest. The
major companies are not reliant on any one particular source
and can easily freeze out a particular producing country if it
does not co-operate with the needs of the company.
The UK/Dutch company Unilever is the world's largest
supplier of black tea. With tea estates in India and eastern
Africa it has an estimated 15% share of global black tea
sales. Its subsidiary Brooke Bond Kenya is the country’s
largest plantation company with an 11% share of output. In
July 2004 the company changed its name to Unilever Kenya Tea.
Unilever’s major brands (including Lipton, PG Tips and Red
Label) have an annual turnover in excess of €2.35 billion and
are available in more than 100 countries. Unilever's Lipton
Yellow Label is the world's most popular tea brand.
James Finlay Ltd produces around 55,000 tonnes of tea each
year on its plantations in Kenya, Uganda, Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka.
Tata Tata Ltd (India) has 18 subsidiaries worldwide and a
significant presence in 35 countries. It owns more than 70
estates in India and Sri Lanka, produces over 60,000 tonnes of
black tea and in 2003 acquired Tetley, the second-largest
tea-bag brand worldwide. This level of industry concentration
also raises competition policy issues.
1.5 Major trends in the market
There is no single world price for tea, but rather
differing prices at different auctions. The price trend until
recently has been downward. World Bank figures suggest that
between 1970 and 2000, tea prices fell by 44% in real terms.
However, the FAO composite price index, a world indicator
price for tea, shows that tea prices are slowly increasing
since 2002. After two years decrease between 2000 and 2002,
the price for tea increased by 31.7% in 5 years; in recent
years it rose by 6.5% to $1.95 per kg in 2007 after an 11.6%
rise in 2006, in a sign that global oversupply of tea was
improving. According to FAO simulations, ‘tea prices are
expected to maintain their upward trend in 2008 as a result of
a tight supply on the world market exacerbated by a projected
10% decrease in Kenyan production due to the current civil
unrest in this country […] [and] given current demand
elasticities of the major players in the tea market, it will
take 3 years for the market to adjust to this price shock.”
|
Year |
FAO Composite prices- US$/kg |
Annual growth rate |
|
2000 |
1.8 |
|
|
2001 |
1.56 |
-13.3% |
|
2002 |
1.48 |
-5.1% |
|
2003 |
1.52 |
2.7% |
|
2004 |
1.66 |
9.2% |
|
2005 |
1.64 |
-1.2% |
|
2006 |
1.83 |
11.6% |
|
2007 |
1.95 |
6.6% |
Source: Committee on commodity problems- Intergovernmental
group on tea- Current situation and medium outlook- May 2008
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/013/k2054E.pdf
However a longer term analysis indicates that after taking
inflation into account, the real price of tea has dropped
substantially. In real terms, producers now receive less than
half what they did 30 years ago. While technological
innovation and the development of new teas has led to some
expansion of the market, they have increased world output of
tea and reduced prices without affecting global demand
significantly. In the absence of supply-management strategies,
production has outstripped demand.
Tea prices have nonetheless fluctuated less dramatically
than coffee prices, giving small-scale tea growers a little
more certainty than coffee farmers.
Auction centres could become redundant with technological
advances. At present almost all tea fields are located in
regions where land-phone lines intermittently fail or do not
exist. With the development of the internet through mobile
phones, however, and given that many plantations are financed
by large companies, tea estates will in the future be able to
post real-time data daily onto the internet, enabling a viable
futures market.
The global process for bringing buyers and sellers more
directly together is already taking place with catalogue sales
of premium tea. ACP producers need assistance to access
information to enable them to exploit on-line auctions.
2. The production structure of the ACP tea sector
The 19 ACP tea producers are Burundi, Cameroon, DR Congo,
Ethiopia. Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. All but Lesotho,
Mali, Nigeria and Seychelles export tea.
Kenya accounts for over half of the tea output in ACP
countries. Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania are the next largest
producers, (in that order) with Malawi’s production about 15%
of Kenya’s.
Globally, most tea is grown on plantations. In the ACP
countries, small-scale growers are also prominent; in Kenya,
they account for about 60% of the country’s tea production.
Smallholders often grow tea bushes alongside staple crops for
their own consumption, with the tea providing a cash income.
Outsourcing is practiced in some countries - in Zimbabwe
and Malawi, for example - with growers using their own plots
to grow tea on contract for plantations. Only the smallest
producers farm their land entirely with family labour, and
many smallholders employ workers, often on a casual basis.
On plantations, the use of child labour seems common in
many of the poorer tea-producing regions, due to the economic
conditions of the household and lack of schools. A recent
survey by the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions found, for
example, that child labour is a very serious problem in many
tea (and also tobacco) plantations.
Low prices for tea tend to be passed on to the poorest
segments of a country in the form of low wages on plantations.
Given that it is easier to cut costs (by reducing labour
costs) than raise prices (it is impossible for a producer
country to attempt this unilaterally), producing countries
have to remain competitive by lowering wages – which partially
accounts for the rut in which plantation wages are caught.
Labour costs account for over half of the cost of
production, and approximately 75% of that arises in plucking.
There is downward pressure on farmers’ incomes and labourers'
wages and working conditions, even though the proportion of
wages in the consumer price of tea is low.
Tea production and exports of ACP countries and other
major exporters to the EU
| |
Production (tonnes) 2006 |
Exports to EU in 2006 (tonnes)
|
|
ACP |
|
|
|
Burundi |
7,500 |
88.5- |
|
Cameroon |
4,000 |
- |
|
DR Congo |
1,400 |
11.6 |
|
Ethiopia |
3,900 |
81.5 |
|
Kenya |
310,580 |
85,137.5 |
|
Madagascar |
550 |
- |
|
Malawi |
38,387 |
10,863.3 |
|
Mali |
150 |
|
|
Mauritius |
1,567 |
35.7 |
|
Mozambique |
10,500 |
496.9 |
|
Nigeria |
n/a |
9.8 |
|
Papua New Guinea |
9,000 |
1,523.4 |
|
Rwanda |
16,000 |
451.4 |
|
Seychelles |
189 |
- |
|
Tanzania, |
30,300 |
4,786.3 |
|
Uganda |
34,334 |
176.7 |
|
Zambia |
750 |
22.3 |
|
Zimbabwe |
22,000 |
4,545.3 |
|
Total ACP |
>491,107 |
>107,830.2 |
|
Other exporters |
|
|
|
India |
892,730 |
41,661.8 |
|
China |
1,049,500 |
32,850.1 |
|
Sri Lanka |
310,800 |
22,657.6 |
|
Indonesia |
171,410 |
29,624.3 |
|
World total |
3,649,491 |
274,836.7
| |
Sources: FAO; EC Helpdesk
ACP countries thus account for around 13% of world
production and 43 % of the EU’s imports.
2.1 The competitiveness of ACP tea
Yields of tea and the cost of producing it vary enormously
from smallholder to estate, estate to estate, and country to
country. In Kenya the estate sector is the most efficient with
yields of about 2,670 kg/ha compared to 1,167 kg/ha in Sri
Lanka. This is reversed in the smallholder sector; in Kenya,
yields from smallholders average only 1,651 kg/ha as against
2,217 kg/ha in Sri Lanka. The low level among Kenya
smallholders is attributed to low levels of fertiliser usage,
poor husbandry practices and inferior management.
Paradoxically, tea smallholders in Kenya generally earn more
than tea workers, many of whom would prefer to be
smallholders.
The Kenya Tea Development Authority pays a minimum of Ksh
7.50 (US cents 9.5) per kg to smallholders and outgrowers.
Growers in Uganda receive US cents 10.4-15, those in Rwanda US
cents 9.5, and those in Malawi US cents 7.5.
2.2 The economic significance of tea to ACP countries
Tea output is increasing in the ACP group as in other
tea-producing areas. Kenya’s production increased from 236,286
tonnes in 2000 to over 328,500 tonnes in 2005, while its
exports increased even faster, from 217,290 tonnes in 2000 to
313,200 tonnes in 2005. Tea accounts for around 20% of
Burundi’s total exports, 18% of Kenya’s, 12% of Rwanda’s and
7% of Malawi’s.
Uganda and South Africa are vigorously developing their tea
sectors, the latter partly through red tea (rooibos),
worldwide export sales of which increased by 400% between 1998
and 2003. Studies carried out in South Africa have shown that
rooibos is rich in antioxidants and may help protect against
damage that can lead to types of cancer and heart problems
(note: strictly rooibos is not a tea).
There is a danger that expansion could have a negative
effect on world tea prices, especially given the near stagnant
demand for tea in many Western countries.
3. The EU regime
The EU has no restrictions on the import of tea, nor does
it have quality standards. The EC describes tea as 'a totally
liberalised market'. The most favoured nation (MFN) tariff is
zero, and there is no tariff escalation if tea is processed.
However, on small packages only, a rate of 3.2% ad
valorem tax applies on imports into the EU of ‘green tea
(not fermented) in immediate packings of a content not
exceeding 3 kg’; on black tea the rate is 0%. There were
therefore no significant issues related to tea during the EPA
negotiations, and countries failing to sign interim EPAs did
not face tariff rises as in the case of some other
commodities.
According to the EC, the main issue concerning the tea
sector is the way its producers are unprotected from
'copycats'. Around 10,000 tonnes of 'Darjeeling' tea, for
example, is produced from the estate in Darjeeling, India, but
30,000 tonnes is sold under this designation around the world.
The EC would like to see an international register of
food-and-drink products that are made from a special recipe,
or are from a specific region, that are not allowed to be
copied. The March 2005 WTO ruling on Geographical Designations
of Origin should help ACP countries that want to develop
regionally specific teas. The EU believes that the ruling
upholds its system of granting protection to products with
specific geographic origin (GIs).
4. The importance of the EU market globally
Global tea imports in 2005 totalled 1.39 million tonnes, of
which the EU imported 323,930 tonnes, 23.7% of the total. In
2007 the UK imported 151,271 tonnes, 56.3% of EU imports.
Germany was the EU’s second largest importer with 16%. The EU
share of global imports rose with the entry of Poland, a major
tea-consuming country, which imported 23,212 tonnes in 2007
(8.6% of EU imports).
The EU’s historical relationship with ACP countries lays
the basis for cooperation, given that EU countries do not grow
tea. The entry of Turkey, the world’s sixth largest tea
producer, into the EU could change this and cause
considerable, but as yet unknown, repercussions for ACP
countries.
The EU gives financial support to tea projects in ACP
countries. The Smallholder Tea Development Programme in
Uganda, for example, was assisted with €20 million from the
European Development Fund. The objective of the project was to
develop Uganda’s smallholder tea subsector and make it
profitable, and to increase farmers’ real income, employment
opportunities and foreign-exchange earnings.
ACP countries could gain, believes the EU, if the WTO were
to extend the extra protection for GIs, currently limited to
wines and spirits, to other products including commodities -
Kenya tea, for example. 'There is ample evidence that
geographical indications are instrumental in fostering market
differentiation leading to premium prices. The resulting
consumer recognition and product reputation should therefore
be safeguarded against unfair competition and imitations via
WTO-wide rules', according to an EC report.
5. Challenges and opportunities for the ACP tea
sector
5.1 The need for investment to improve quality and add
value
Investment is needed to raise the general quality of ACP
teas which tend to be low. This is reflected in the
comparative prices at the Mombasa auction on the one hand and
the Indian and Sri Lankan auctions on the other. For instance
in January/February 2005, tea fetched an average of US cents
154.4/kg in Mombasa compared with US cents 194.2/kg at the
Colombo auction.
More investment is also needed to produce speciality teas.
Teas in this category from Kenya and Rwanda and other ACP
tea-producing countries are in demand and have attracted good
prices. Speciality teas from India have earned a reputation
for high quality and fetch very good prices. A batch of
genuine Darjeeling tea, for example, fetched a record, if
exceptional price, in 2003 of £223/kg., compared with less
than £1/kg for ordinary teas.
Tea-producing countries would profit from expanding into
upstream activities, adding value in their own country, and
generating additional employment, income and revenue. Efforts
by producers to enter activities such as blending have been
hampered by poor market information and inadequate marketing
strategies, aggravated by a lack of funding. The Kenya Tea
Development Agency (KTDA), which processes and markets tea on
behalf of its 370,000 smallholder owners, wants to reverse
this. In March 2003 it announced plans to blend KTDA tea with
cheaper African teas and sell them in branded packs to foreign
markets. In early 2004 the KTDA announced that three new tea
brands are being produced in Kenya for export: green, orthodox
and flavoured tea. The development of the products was
inspired by a need 'to meet new customer demands'.
New strategies aimed at adding value and reducing
production and marketing costs are also needed, especially to
meet changing tastes
5.2 Exploiting the ‘fair trade’ market
An increasing number of tea growers and plantation workers
are benefiting from selling their tea in the fair-trade
system, with a 'Fairtrade' label. Products are certified by
the UK-based Fairtrade Foundation.
Fairtrade certified tea is sourced from tea estates and
democratic small-farmer organisations under terms of trade
which include:
- fair wages and working conditions for employees;
- payment of a negotiated fair price to producers (estates
and smallholder organisations);
- an additional premium for investing in social, economic
or environmental programmes.
The ‘fair trade’ tea industry is growing rapidly, from
1,964 tonnes in 2004, to 5,413 tonnes in 2007, representing a
175% increase in three years. But this still represents only
0.5%, 2% and 5% of the market shares in the UK, Germany and
Switzerland respectively in 2005.
CaféDirect, a UK-based fair-trade company, sources tea from
east Africa and Sri Lanka for sale under its Teadirect label.
With a 34% year-on-year growth by value, Teadirect is the
fastest growing tea brand in the UK retail market. Farmers who
grow tea for Teadirect receive a guaranteed minimum price of
US$1.95/kg, some 40 cents a kg higher than the Mombasa auction
price in early 2005. In addition, a premium of €0.50/kg or
€1.00/kg, depending on the type of tea, is paid for the
improvement of the socio-economic situation of the workers,
their families and communities.
A growing percentage of fair-trade tea, almost 40%, comes
from small-scale growers. Another major UK-based company
Traidcraft, buys chiefly from Uganda and Tanzania. More than
70 fair-trade teas are now marketed, both tea bags and loose
tea, and including 'organic' and green tea.
The Fairtrade label is monitored by the German-based
Fair-trade Labelling Organisation International (FLO), which
sets standards under which tea can be sold, and is working
with 79 tea-producing organisations from six ACP countries,
including fifteen in Kenya, five in Tanzania and in South
Africa, three in Uganda, two in Malawi and one in Burkina
Faso.
An FAO 'Tea Mark' was launched in December 2002. This is
intended to be an international mark to promote tea’s health
benefits. The tea boards of India, Kenya and Sri Lanka have
been involved.
The Kayonza tea-processing factory in Uganda is an example
of involvement in the fair-trade system. The factory is
collectively owned by about 3,100 smallholders, who together
cultivate 1,300 hectares of tea, but most work very small
plots of land (usually less than 0.2 hectares under tea). They
took over the factory after it was privatised.
5.3 Other trends
There are some other favourable trends: a Teadirect report
refers to some 'amazing advances in tea drinking'. It predicts
that our cup of tea, what's in it and the way we drink it will
have changed beyond recognition by 2010: 'Tea looks set for a
massive revival over the coming years, helped along by new
inventions and lifestyle trends'. Tea will also be put to new
uses: 'Trendy tea - tea will come to reflect our life-style
choices and values. Hip bars in France, the UK and the USA are
already serving champagne teas and Earl Grey martinis'.
In an effort to make tea more convenient to prepare, the
tea industry has introduced a ‘tea tablet’. Invented in Japan,
this could help to widen the market. Scientists at the world's
largest tea-research facility, in Assam, India, are also
reported to have developed a tea tablet. However, instant tea
was a commercial failure when introduced into the UK about two
decades ago.
6. Conclusion
While there are no tariff issues in EU-ACP trade relations
in the tea sector, this does not mean that there are no issues
that need to be addressed. Internally, the EC has routinely
used provisions of its competition policy against ‘abuse of a
dominant market position’ to prosecute and fine EU sugar
companies for collusion in setting sugar prices. The question
therefore arises: will the EC agree to joint ACP-EU action
against international companies which collude in setting
prices of major commodities such as tea, thereby abusing a
dominant market position?
There also appear to be a number of key ‘aid for trade’
issues in ACP-EU trade relations in the tea sector. We might
ask whether the EU will be willing to use:
- ‘aid for trade’ instruments in a structured and
systematic way to assist in developing tea production in ACP
countries which serves the ‘quality’ end of the EU tea
market, thereby improving the prices received for teas?
- ‘aid for trade’ support to assist ACP countries in
developing production for the ‘fair trade’ market and in
further promoting this market within the EU?
- ‘aid for trade’ support to assist ACP countries in
procuring the technical expertise to be able to move up the
tea value chain through developing blending operations to
serve EU markets directly?
Initiatives in these areas could greatly help ACP countries
increase the value obtained from tea production.
The importance of growing demand for tea and regulating the
quality of tea traded internationally would appear to be the
kind of programme which the ‘All-ACP’ agricultural commodities
programme funded by the EC should support.
Source
The Tea Council (UK)
www.teacouncil.co.uk
FAO
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000784/index.html
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000836/index.html
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/105404/index.html
http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/j5316e.htm
FAO, May 14th 2008
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000836/index.html
Source: Committee on commodity problems- Intergovernmental
group on tea- Current situation and medium outlook- May
2008
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/013/k2054E.pdf
Africa News network on tea
http://africanagriculture.blogspot.com/search/label/tea
EC Export Helpdesk
http://exporthelp.europa.eu/index.html
Hindu Business Line, May 24th 2006
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/05/24/stories/2006052402130800.htm
The EU's position on geographical indications (GIs)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/sectoral/intell_property/argu_en.htm
The Tea Market: A Background Study Oxfam 2002
www.maketradefair.com/assets/english/TeaMarket.pdf
EC: 'Agricultural Commodity Chains, Dependence and Poverty
- A proposal for an EU Action Plan', February 12th 2004,
COM(2004)89 final.
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/cnc/2004/com2004_0089en01.pdf
Fair-trade Foundation, London: 'Producer Profile, Kayonza
Growers Tea Factory, Uganda', via
www.fairtrade.org.uk
Africa Tea brokers Ltd
http://www.atbltd.com/
FLO website
http://www.fairtrade.net/tea.html
Fair Trade in Europe 2005, FINE
http://www.european-fair-trade-association.org/Efta/ff.php
International Tea Committee
www.intteacomm.co.uk
'Health benefits of red tea boosts sales', All news,
November 25th 2004
http://beveragedaily.com/news/ng.asp?id=56330&n=wh49&c=#emailcode
'Assam gives the world first tea pill', Hindustan
Times, March 19th 2005
www.teaforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=729
