Sanjay from our tea-buying team has just been out to Rwanda to see how our project to help Rwandan tea farmers is progressing. But before he even got a chance to catch up on his emails we ambushed him and asked for a report. This is what he told us...

“This trip was a great opportunity to tour the farms and factories we’re working with in Rwanda alongside Mark Thomas, a representative of our funding partners in the project, FRICH (the Food Retail Industry Challenge fund). The main focus of the project is to improve the quality of life for 10,000 farmers and their families by raising standards within the Rwandan tea industry, and this trip allowed us to gauge its progress.

As well as improving the quality of the tea itself, helping the farms to achieve Rainforest Alliance certification is a major element in the plan. Working towards that standard is a really effective way to improve farm management practices that will not only lead to better yields but also to better prices for the farmer, and improved living standards.

While visiting the key factories we work with at Gisovu, Kitabi and Mata, Mark and I saw evidence of a great deal of work, with robust systems for ensuring workers have the right personal protective equipment as well as substantial investment in new waste water management methods.

Mark was very impressed with what he saw, and our suppliers are well on track to achieve certification later next year, which is really encouraging.”

We'll be sure to keep you posted on further developments!