STiR coffee and tea magazine

28 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 1, 2018 (February / March) P roducers are focused on increasing crop yields and prices for this product. Not satisfying this basic commercial need softens their focus on other social and environmental issues. This need requires funda- mental improvements to market access for (the many) producers for whom the tenets of an acceptable supply chain remain as hurdles, including: w Quality/Quality Control w Finance w Lot sizes w Traceability w Export proficiency w Transparency Few to none of these shape point-of-sale discussions or other consumer- facing scripts as they represent the mundane, unsexy lexicon of commerce rather than the exotic, albeit unlikely imagery of happy smallholders; almost an oxymoron to those that work within the trade. Even within the organized plantation sector, when the question is asked of certifications, they are simply a pre-requisite for selling to certain markets. Producers, across both tea and coffee, are happy to carry the bureaucratic burden of membership in the understanding that this satisfies market de- mands. But, ask the same producers whether they are the intrinsic drivers of sustainability and they will answer "no", this is the requirement of running a successful agricultural business. The issue is, therefore, one of whether adop- tion of certification for access to certain market access, brings with it risk. As branded companies can attest to, it takes huge investment and time to build brand health and so, to leave that of tea in the hands of third party brand Third-party certifications heralded as progressive solutions are souring for producers as the priority of marketing engagement trumps poverty relief Certification: A Breakdown in Communications By John Snell Marketers can more easily sell this in juxtaposition to the commercial reality... ... which is this. John Snell is a consultant to the tea industry and has lead sustainability programs in both tea and coffee sec- tors. He describes himself as an unabashed supporter of pre-competitive collaborative trade initiatives. He praises certification programs "for catalyzing consum- er demand for sustainable products." But he is also vocal about "the difficulties of top-down mechanisms to meaningfully address sustainability for producers, rather than a market agnostic, bottom up approach, where audits are merely tools for the identification and prioritization of issues so that corrective action and resource deployment can be managed effectively."

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