Winner: Hand-picked profit shared programme - Ahmad Tea
“Every cup of tea has a story,” says Ahmad Tea. That story usually originates with the tea pickers, often women, who are among the lowest-paid workers in the tea industry. They pick each leaf but are systematically shut out of sharing in the profits their hard work creates. Ahmad’s Hand Picked Profit Shared programme set out to change this fundamental industry imbalance.
The initiative returns more of the profits from tea directly to the people who pick it via an annual digital bonus, which is paid safely and directly into tea pickers’ bank accounts. This is a vital point of difference in a system where workers are usually paid informally in cash.
To get to this point, though, there was much work to do on financial inclusion. Many tea workers, particularly women, did not have bank accounts. Ahmad took proactive steps including educating tea workers on financial literacy and the importance of banking and helping them open individual digital bank accounts.
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This has helped create a transparent system with no need for unscrupulous intermediaries and fully traceable transactions. It’s been a game-changer for women in countries including India, Sri Lanka, Malawi and Kenya, where even though the woman is the breadwinner for the household, finances are often controlled by her husband. Even at this relatively early stage of the project, tea pickers have shared that having a bank account has allowed them to save for the first time – with these direct digital payments helping unlock freedom, financial independence and choice for some of the world’s poorest women and their families.
In 2024, the programme’s first year, more than 6,000 tea pickers received a bonus worth three to four days’ wages, which helped close the average living wage gap by half, according to Ahmad Tea. This year, the results were even more impressive – the initiative doubled its reach, with more than 12,000 pickers receiving a bonus with an increased value from the previous year.
One judge described this as a “great initiative that’s delved into the problem in great depth and helped at-risk people in some of the poorest countries in the world”. Another pointed out how “digital payments transform work in developing countries – this is very empowering and life-changing for women. Love it.”
Shortlisted:
- Ahmad Tea – Hand-picked profit shared programme
- Asda – Tickled Pink
- Fyffes – Delivering education and nutrition in partnership with Belizean banana-growing communities
- In Kind Direct – Tesco Burst 5
- Lidl GB – Fuelling the future: How Lidl Foodies is supporting children’s food education
- Natasha Allergy Research Foundation – Allergy School
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