ITA Teams up with SOLIDARIDAD to Turn Small Growers Globally Competitive

Small may be beautiful, but all that’s small may not always compete with their big brothers, especially in an international arena. And here is an initiative to enable smallholder tea growers of India to compete in the global markets through sustainability practices.

Indian Tea Association (ITA), the premier and oldest Association of tea producers in India founded in 1881, has teamed up with SOLIDARIDAD Asia, a global sustainability organization, to roll out what they call- TRINITEA for sustainability practices and training initiatives focused on smallholder tea growers. Significantly, the smallholder sector now accounts for nearly 50 percent of India’s tea production.

Vivek Goenka, chairman, Indian Tea Association (ITA) said that the TRINITEA programme would facilitate the Indian tea industry to be future ready for new age customer demands. In recent times several producers in the traditional sector including ITA members have increased their stakes in sourcing green leaf to complement their production. Traceability is a challenge. ITA, being a body of the producers, considers it prudent to associate and integrate the large production base of the small grower sector so as to ensure that the Indian Tea industry has an integrated sustainability agenda. ITA has signed MoUs with the major Small Tea Growers Associations in Assam and West Bengal. Interestingly, the United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) and SOLIDARIDAD already have an MoU to work towards the sustainability goals in Southern India.

“SOLIDARIDAD works towards attaining a benchmark on sustainability in the tea industry. It is our motto to bridge the gap and see to it that smallholder get an even playing ground in the global market. We have to ensure that the produce is accepted with high regard nationally as well as internationally. Smallholder sector now accounts for about 50 percent of India’s tea production. TRINITEA aims at providing the smallholders a platform to be compliant to International and National standards and be competitive in the market by improving quality and realise their aspiration for a better price for their produce,” said Shatadru Chattopadhayay, managing director, SOLIDARIDAD Asia.

ITA officials said that TRINITEA would provide round-the-year on-ground training to improve agronomical, social and environmental practices of the smallholders. SOLIDARIDAD and ITA will implement TRINITEA, a digital self-assessment application, and the Android-based digital training tool for the farmers in the local language, to continue the training virtually. SOLIDARIDAD, which has global presence and expertise, will also render its support for promoting high quality and safe tea production by smallholders in domestic and international markets.

“The programme seeks to support the initiatives by the industry to increase exports of high-quality tea from India. In December last year, a high-level delegation of China Tea Marketing Association, led by its chairman, Wang Qing visited India and signed an MoU with the ITA. The MoU recognised the TRINITEA and China National Guideline for Sustainable Tea as a framework for sustainability in tea production and trade between the two countries. The Indonesian Tea Marketing Association has also provided similar recognition to the TRINITEA framework through an MoU with the ITA,” said  Arijit Raha, secretary general, ITA.