Sustainable Tea
Small is beautiful, but not necessarily in the cutthroat world of unrestrained markets, where big fish get fatter by gobbling up the little fish. But WAM and Prakruthi managed to bring the taste of the tea of Wayanad’s small growers to the international markets. Enter the Wayanad Agro Movement (WAM) Tea Co.Ltd., which was formed by CST with the help of Wayanad Charitable Organisation in Mananthavady taluk. In 2003, CST Congregation floated a tea factory for small tea growers, boasting of more than 200 farmers as its shareholders. However, this laudable venture was in a crisis due to high competition from the market, low quality of made tea, low prices from action, lack of local market, and unstable quality and quantity of green leaves. Now, Prakruthi has supported the WAM Tea Company Ltd., in reaching sustainable growth with their initiative, and to help bring small tea growers under the UTZ® certification.

Objectives
_ Capacity building of workers and small tea producers
_ Developing sustainable market access Achievements
_ Enhanced capacity of the 500 farmers related to UTZ® certification and its process
_ Started four Leaf-Collection Centres
_ WAM Tea company has become the first UTZ® Certified tea company in the World Outcomes
_ Sustainable assurance of better quality green tea leaves and better price for producers
_ Skill development of management, farmers and workers
_ Better quality of made tea by better management in the factory
_ Enabled small producers to become players in the international value chain

“Indian”ising UTZ® Tea Code Aworkshop on the purpose and meaning of UTZ® certification was held on May 2008 at Darjeeling, West Bengal. Forty participants from India, China, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Sri Lanka representing the interests of planters, tea auctioneers, leaf buyers, small and marginal farmers, trade unions, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and statutory bodies such as the Tea Board, took part in the consultative process.

Five panels have been formed consisting of following agencies/ representatives in each panel:
_ Panel One: Planters, Tea Companies and Auctioneers/Buyers
_ Panel Two: Small tea growers
_ Panel Three: Trade Unions
_ Panel Four: NGOs and CSOs
_ Panel Five: Sharing of international experiences

Members in each Panel
Representatives from each panel have aired their views and experiences and concluded as follows:Panel 1: Indian Tea plantations are already following good social practices as enshrined in the plantations Labour Act and other legislation governing the Tea industry, and this would be further highlighted during the certification process. However, we must pay more attention to the actual implementation of different codes in the Indian Tea Industry Panel 2: Collectivization works for the benefit of small grower, who must learn from each other and from similar experiments in this direction. Post-collectivization, certifications like UTZ® could be a useful tool for small holders to get access to quality markets.

National Reference Group(NRG)
Panel 3: UTZ® Tea code is a positive and welcome step.
Panel 4: All panelists touched on the importance of having a certification support network, and this was endorsed by the floor at the open discussion. Panel 5: They have welcomed the certification of tea product sand hoped that once the idea catches on, retail outlets would vie with each other to stock certified commodities. A National Reference Group to take the agenda forward, and also a Certification Support Network was formed.