Many small-scale farmers at Geoffrey’s tea Factory won’t earn enough from their tea bushes to live off – especially during a challenging year with a bad harvest, like farmers have experienced lately. ‘The majority of our farmers own around 500 bushes and the income from this may not be enough to cater for all their needs,’ says Geoffrey. ‘The money received at the end of the year is not enough to sustain them.’ That’s why the Fairtrade Premium is being used to support farmers to find additional ways to make a living, so they’re not entirely reliant on tea.
At Rukuriri they decided to fund a milk cooling plant so farmers can earn extra income from keeping cows. ‘Our farmers are now able to diversify into dairy farming,’ says Geoffrey. The plant also provides animal feed on credit, allowing farmers to continue production even when they don’t have the money to buy feed. ‘An additional project is artificial insemination,’ explains Geoffrey. ‘This was started to improve the cow breeds our farmers keep and to supplement the new milk cooling plant.’
Comments are closed