Tea

In the UK, to express a preference for a drink other than tea is an act of treason. Okay, that’s not quite true but we do spend around £500 million a year on the stuff and drink 36 billion cups of it.

Our love of tea connects us to millions of workers and smallholders in tea gardens around the world. Many of these were first established in British colonies, such as India and East Africa, to meet the demand of the British market and undermine China’s dominance of the trade. The colonial regimes have gone but many of the brutal working practices from that period continue, particularly in Assam in India.

Despite the fact that tea provides an income for some of the world’s poorest people, the industry remains beset by labour and human rights abuses.

Who's in the guide to ethical tea brands?

In the UK, four brands – Yorkshire, Twinings, PG Tips and Tetley – account for nearly 70% of black tea sales. Twinings, PG Tips and Tetley are all owned by multinational companies with turnovers in the billions and together account for about 17% of the global tea market (Twinings - Associated British Foods; PG Tips - now ultimately owned by CVC Capital; Tetley - Tata). Domination by large companies means they can use their power to suppress prices.

Most of the other brands in the guide are small by comparison with a tiny market share and many of them only sell tea. We haven’t included supermarkets here as they were covered in their own guide in issue 194. But own-brand supermarket tea is a significant part of the market, accounting for nearly 20% of sales, so we do discuss some of their practices below.

This guide covers black tea and green tea. We have a separate guide to herbal teas including rooibos.

Organic, Fairtrade, sustainable, eco tea - certification schemes

Many of the teas in this guide use one or more types of certification, either Fairtrade, organic or Rainforest Alliance. But do they work?

Low incomes and poverty wages are still widespread in the production of tea.

Fairtrade has been shown to be largely ineffective in improving workers conditions on Indian tea plantations, and there have been allegations of serious human rights abuses on Rainforest Alliance-certified plantations, for example the Malawian Lujeri plantation mentioned below. Certification is therefore not, on its own, a reliable indicator of good working conditions, particularly in the tea sector.

Read our feature on tea certification schemes for profiles on Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, organic and more.

Indian tea plantations

Only about 10% of our tea comes from India but the appalling treatment of tea plantation workers, particularly in the north-eastern state of Assam, deserves our attention. All of the big brands and supermarkets sell some Indian tea, either as part of their blends, where it may not be obvious, or on its own, when its provenance from Assam or Darjeeling is often used as a selling point.

Although the number of smallholder growers has increased in recent decades, most Indian tea is still grown on large plantations, which employ around a million permanent workers and many more casual labourers. The conditions on the plantations have been documented by academic and NGO research studies over many years. These have consistently shown that the lives of tea workers have barely improved since the colonial era.

Many of today’s workers are descendants of indentured labourers who were taken by the British from other parts of India to live and work on the plantations. Because of this history they remain relatively isolated and with few options beyond tea plantation work.

Poverty pay for Indian tea workers

Assam tea workers are paid an extraordinarily low wage. Oxfam research published in 2019 found that permanent plantation workers are paid £1-2 a day, well below the legal minimum wage for agricultural workers which is closer to £3 a day. The study also found that half of the households researched had government “below poverty line” cards entitling them to monthly food rations – official acknowledgement that tea plantation workers cannot survive on what they earn without government subsidy.

Plantations Labour Act

One of the reasons for the low pay is that plantations are obliged by a 1951 law called the Plantations Labour Act (PLA) to provide a range of services to their workers including housing, health care, educational facilities and crèches. The requirement to provide these in-kind benefits means that plantations are exempted from minimum wage law.

However, plantations routinely fail to provide even the most basic services to their workers who live in cramped, dilapidated housing with poor sanitation and limited access to free, clean drinking water. School facilities are poor and lack sufficient numbers of teachers, crèches are often non-existent, and while clinics exist, many lack doctors.

The PLA, which is meant to regulate plantation labour and provide for worker welfare, is therefore seen by many as an excuse to pay poverty wages and keep workers in penury.

Restricted freedoms

Freedom of association and collective bargaining are weak on the plantations. Unions exist but they are often dominated by senior employees who are close to management and act against the interests of workers. Workers’ houses are meant to be freely accessible by anyone, but in reality the management requires visitors to seek permission and monitors their activities. This makes it difficult for unions or NGOs, whose remit is to support tea workers, to get access.

Women tea workers bear the brunt

It is mainly women workers who carry out the most labour-intensive and backbreaking work of harvesting tea, while work in the tea processing factories – which is more prestigious and better paid – tends to be done by men.

Harvesting work often involves walking long distances over rough and steep ground in temperatures of up to 38 degrees Celsius or in torrential monsoon rain and carrying up to 30 kg of tea leaves. As men work in the factories they have access to facilities such as canteens and toilets which are not provided in the fields.

Because of the lack of toilets, some women stay at home when they are menstruating, which means that they miss out on wages. The lack of crèches causes many women to carry newborns on their backs while working. Women also do most of the unpaid domestic work in their households meaning that they can do around 13 hours of physical work a day.

Kenyan tea farmers

Kenya supplies around 40% of the UK's tea.

Much of Kenya’s tea is grown on large plantations but around 60% is produced by smallholders. Smallholders rely on family labour which means that it is common for children to work, and there are estimates that between 15% and 30% of tea farm labour is done by children. Casual labour is also common on small farms. Casual labourers have no guarantee of work and no benefits such as sick pay, maternity pay or pensions.

As with Indian tea, the price paid to farmers for their tea is low compared to the retail price. The market for tea is dominated by a small number of large buyers whose market position gives them the power to push down prices paid to farmers. The low prices paid make it difficult for both smallholder families and hired labourers to earn enough for a decent living.

Serious human rights abuses on East African tea plantations

In recent years, a number of legal cases have been brought in the UK courts and internationally against companies that supply tea to major brands and supermarkets. Tea workers in Kenya and Malawi have made allegations of serious human rights abuses and are seeking redress for the harms they have suffered.

The claims made by the workers give an indication of the brutal and exploitative conditions experienced by tea plantations workers. The three cases below are ongoing at the time of writing (April 2022).

In one case, Malawian women workers have made a claim in the High Court in London against Lujeri and its parent PGI, a UK-headquartered multinational, which has supplied brands including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Typhoo, Unilever (previous owner of PG Tips), and Betty’s & Taylors (Yorkshire Tea). The workers claim that the company failed to protect them from rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, coercion and discrimination by male workers. The lawyers who represent the women say there is a systemic problem of male workers at plantations abusing their positions of power in relation to the women working under their supervision, and that the claimants often submit to the sexual harassment for fear of losing their employment.

The Scottish firm Finlays, which doesn’t sell directly to consumers but supplies tea to brands and supermarkets including Morrisons, Twinings, and Tetley, is being sued in the Scottish courts by Kenyan tea pickers for injuries sustained as a result of their work.

Hundreds of workers have claimed that they worked up to 12 hours a day, six days a week and were expected to carry up to two stones of tea leaves on their back for over half a mile on rough ground and hills. The workers claim that it was routine practice for company representatives to give painkillers to employees who requested them without asking why they needed them. The workers claim that as a result of their conditions they have suffered permanent damage to their spines.

In a second Kenyan case, 218 tea plantation workers filed a complaint with the UN in July 2020 against Unilever which, at that time, owned the PG Tips and Pukka brands, alleging that the company failed to protect them from ethnic violence which broke out following a disputed election in 2007. At least seven workers were killed and 56 women raped on Unilever’s Kericho plantation. The workers claim they raised their concerns about violence with management but were ignored and simply told to hide in the tea bushes. They lost their belongings during the attacks and say Unilever stopped their wages for six months. Only those who returned to the plantation received compensation of one month’s wages. The claimants are seeking compensation from Unilever for the long-term physical and psychiatric injuries which have left many unable to work more than a decade after the attacks.

How much of the price you pay for your tea goes to workers?

Brands and supermarkets take a large cut of the retail price of tea with only a very small amount going to workers.

According to Oxfam’s estimates, supermarkets and tea brands in the UK receive 66% of the final consumer price for bagged black tea, while labour costs to pay workers represent just 4% of the final price.

Oxfam also calculated that in order for workers to receive a living wage – one on which they can achieve a basic but decent standard of living – they would need to receive 10% of the retail price. In the example given in the graphic, this would be just over seven pence. Brands and supermarkets could achieve this by increasing the price per pack or taking a slightly smaller cut.

Price comparison of ethical tea and other brands

We compared the prices of our Best Buys and the big companies. We looked at the price of a teabag of the companies’ ‘everyday,’ ‘family’ or ‘breakfast’ teas. There was a wide range of prices and most of the companies with high Ethiscores were at the more expensive end but Traidcraft and Cafédirect cost under 5p – similar to big brand and supermarket prices – and Qi and Postcard (for 2g of loose leaf tea) cost less than 10p.

Plastic in teabags

The plastic, polypropylene, has commonly been used to seal teabags. On contact with hot water these bags release billions of micro and nanoplastic particles which are potentially harmful to the environment. Many people dispose of teabags in their home or local authority compost bins which means they are likely to end up in the soil where, if they contain plastic, they will remain.

As a result of increased public awareness and concern, many companies have taken action on the issue and most companies reviewed for this guide provided information on their websites about what their teabags are made of.

Oil or plant-based plastic?

As a replacement for plastic, some companies have switched to using PLA (Polylactic Acid) which is also a plastic but is made from plant sources, often corn. PLA will not break down in your home compost but can be disposed of in your council food waste bin.

Which teabags are plastic-free?

The best way to avoid tea bags which contain plastic is to drink loose leaf tea. In the tables below you can see which companies sell loose leaf and whether their teabags are plastic-free, use PLA, or are still using some plastic. Some companies have made changes to their teabags quite recently. If you’ve got some old packets in your cupboard, check what the packet says.

(Information was taken from company websites, Facebook pages, or communication with the company in February and March 2022. NB This only covers the teabags themselves, not sachets they may be wrapped in, or wrapping on the box.)

Is tea vegan?

Yes, in theory.

But some brands include animal-based ingredients like honey or sodium casinate (casin) or unknown flavourings. Twinings states that "nearly all of our teas and infusions are suitable for a vegan diet". Although it doesn't say what makes some of them not vegan, the filter on their webpage excludes most of their standard green teas, both plain and the flavoured varieties. There is no clear indication in the ingredient lists what the "flavourings" are for example, in the non-vegan green tea with coconut and mango.

In additional, some of the companies which sell tea also sell animal products and lost marks for animal rights or factory farming. Vegans may want to avoid them.

Associated British Foods, which owns Twinings and Jacksons of Piccadilly, owns pig farms and sells pork which isn’t organic so lost marks for animal rights and factory farming.

Ecotone Group, which owns Clipper, owns a brand which sells organic ham and sausages, so it lost marks for animal rights but not factory farming.

Traidcraft sells honey, silk and fish so lost marks for animal rights.

Bettys and Taylors, which owns Yorkshire Tea and Taylors of Harrogate, owns tea rooms which sell non-organic meat and dairy products so lost marks for factory farming and animal rights.

Zetland Capital, which owns Typhoo, Ridgways, Heath & Heather, Fresh Brew, Glengettie and Lift, has hotels in its portfolio which sell non-organic meat, fish, dairy products and eggs so also lost marks for factory farming and animal rights.

Associated British Foods also lost marks for animal testing as they did not have policies which fully prohibited its use.

Other issues to consider when buying ethical tea

Environmental reporting

Tea is mostly grown on plantations which are intensive monocultures where pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and inorganic fertilisers are often used. This reduces biodiversity, erodes the soil and can generate chemical runoff into nearby bodies of water.

Many of the small companies in this guide are mostly or wholly organic and therefore avoid these practices. Qi, Hampstead Tea, Hambleden Herbs, Steenbergs, Dragonfly, Higher Living, Morningtown, Postcard and Revolver World Coop Tea, all got best ratings in our Environmental Reporting category for this reason.

Our Best Buys Qi and Postcard stated that their tea didn’t come from plantations but grew in polycultures amongst other native flora or crops.

Of the four market leaders, Tata (Tetley, Teapigs) and Associated British Foods (Twinings, Jacksons of Piccadilly) and Yorkshire Tea got worst ratings.

Carbon Management and Reporting

The carbon rating is new since the last time we did this guide, so this is the first time the tea companies have been rated for what they’re doing to reduce their emissions.

To get a best rating, small companies have to discuss their carbon impacts and plausible ways they have reduced them in the past and will reduce them in the future.

Best rating: Clipper, Hambleden Herbs, Qi, Steenbergs, Traidcraft.

Other small companies discussed their emissions only very briefly or not at all and so got a middle rating.

Large companies also have to report their emissions figures annually and have a target to reduce them by at least 2.5% a year without offsetting. The other larger companies got worst ratings.

Our updated Coffee Shops guide has the carbon footprint of a cup of tea.

Supply chain transparency

When we last published this guide in 2018, we highlighted Traidcraft’s Who Picked My Tea campaign which encouraged consumers to write to tea brands asking them to publish a full list of their tea suppliers. Before then, tea brands rarely published data on where they bought their tea. This made it difficult to hold them or the tea estates to account for worker conditions as no one knew where company standards were supposed to apply. As a result of the campaign, eight UK brands and buyers of tea published supplier lists.

Building on this campaign, in 2021, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) approached 65 companies, 26 of which were UK-based, and asked them to disclose their tea supplier lists and to provide information about their human rights and sourcing policies.

Ten companies fully disclosed their supply chains and three of them are in this guide: Twinings, Yogi Tea and Yorkshire Tea.

Three supermarkets, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons and Tesco, were also among the ten.

Partially disclosed their supplier lists: Clipper, Tetley, Typhoo.

Some companies did not reply at all, including Sainsbury’s and Lidl.

BHRRC points out that, as some companies were able to fully disclose, including those with large complex supply chains, disclosure isn’t difficult. The determining factor is a company’s willingness to do so. It concludes that transparency in supply chains is an essential first step to making labour rights abuses – from forced labour and gender based-violence to wage violations – discoverable and, therefore, for these abuses to be addressed.