As we approach International Tea Day on 21 May, we are reminded that tea is not just a daily ritual. It’s the livelihood of millions, a pillar of rural economies, and a crop tightly linked to ecosystem health.
Yet today, tea is a crop in crisis. Deep, structural challenges threaten its future. Difficult living conditions and low wages for both farmers and workers are exacerbated by economic pressures. In 2023, global tea production exceeded consumption by nearly 400,000 metric tonnes, pushing prices below sustainable levels and squeezing margins.
Outdated tea trade model
The global tea sector remains dependent on a low-value trade model. Kenya, for example, exports over 95% of its tea in bulk, missing opportunities in high-value segments like organic, specialty, and wellness teas. Climate change is destabilising yields and quality, threatening long-term supply.
Meanwhile, the market is shifting. Consumers and regulators increasingly demand ethical sourcing, transparency, and environmental responsibility.
The resilience and social justice challenges make the cost of inaction higher than the cost of investing in a more sustainable value chain. Without adaptation, businesses face higher costs, reputational risks, and supply disruptions. Tea companies that lead on sustainability now will gain in resilience, productivity and brand trust that will allow farmers to access premium markets in Europe, North America, and beyond.
To survive, producers must move beyond outdated trade models and invest in fairer, more innovative, and resilient ways of growing, sourcing, and selling tea – shifting the system, not just the symptoms.
The Rainforest Alliance believes tea is at a turning point. We certify more than one million tea farmers across key producing regions, representing around 18% of global tea production and making it one of the largest sustainability initiatives in the sector. Research shows certification remains one of the most effective drivers of sustainability in tea, leading to better worker wellbeing, higher farmer incomes, improved yields, reduced deforestation and healthier ecosystems.
Community change
Beyond certification, our work aims to address the root causes of the challenges facing tea production. In Sri Lanka, for example, we’ve partnered with the Centre for Child Rights and Business to support ‘gender champions’ – trusted community voices who raise early concerns about working or living conditions. The programme is now active on 18 tea estates, with 13 more set to join.
While local efforts like this can spark meaningful change, they are still too fragmented and underfunded.
That’s why we’re launching Tea for Change – a bold new initiative that sets out to transform the tea sector, rooted in equity, ecology, and economics. We’re bringing together brands, governments, donors and investors to co-fund and scale the projects in critical tea landscapes that have proven most effective.
We have identified five key pathways to drive this change: raising incomes and wages, reducing the cost of sustainable production, protecting human rights, tackling environmental degradation and building climate resilience. Unifying these projects across themes, geographies and actors will create greater efficiencies and unlock the level of investment the sector urgently needs.
We’re kick-starting this work in Kenya and India, two countries that together produce nearly 60% of all Rainforest Alliance certified tea and 12% of global tea volumes.
In Kenya, for instance, where 99% of the tea grown is Rainforest Alliance certified, we are anchoring Tea for Change through a proposed national Tea Platform, where actors collaborate to develop strategies, track progress, and drive accountability for sustainability commitments.
Collective action
This kind of pre-competitive collective action is exactly what the sector needs: ambitious, co-ordinated and built for lasting impact. The time for incremental steps is over. With the right investment and collaboration, tea can become a net-positive crop that gives back to people and nature more than it takes.
But we need tea companies, retailers, governments and investors to step up by championing regenerative practices, improving farmgate prices and co-funding collective platforms that reimagine the future of tea, from soil to shelf. A future where supply chains are resilient, farmers and workers are empowered, ecosystems are restored and high-quality tea meets growing consumer demand.
The road ahead won’t be easy. But if we act together we can make tea not just viable, but visionary.
Santiago Gowland, CEO, Rainforest Alliance
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