kibagenge tea

Kibagenge - Fairtrade Tea Co-operative

The Kibagenge Co-operative in Kenya is a good example of how well the co-operative business model and Fairtrade products go together.

Joseph Cheruiyot

...is the Chairman of Finlay’s Outgrowers Group, the umbrella organisation that manages the five co-operatives that make up the Kibagenge Project. Now retired, he is also Chairman of Kokchaik Co-operative Society, Member of Peace Committee in his home county of Kericho in Kenya, and a visiting justice in Kericho prisons.

To widen support and introduce more smallholders into our supply chain, The Co-operative is working with our tea suppliers Finlays, The Co-operative College and development organisation Africa Now! to bring together over 11,000 individual smallholders into five new co-operatives, bring them into Fairtrade certification, help them diversify into other products, and gain better access to market, for example through supplying to our 99 Tea. The project has been christened "Kibagenge" which, in the farmers' local language, means "coming together as one".

The first step was for the farmers to organise themselves into five producer co-operatives with an overarching single federation. This enables farmers to use their collective power to seek better market prices for their goods. They will also have access to loans which they can use to pay for children's education and to grow their businesses.

In Fairtrade Fortnight 2012. (27 Feb to 11 Mar) one of the producers from the Kibagenge project will visit the UK.

Please visit our tour page to find out if they are coming to an event near you.

follow our tour

History of tea timeline

For years The Co-operative has been leading the way in sourcing and trading tea. Take a look at our tea timeline and see how our tea production has evolved.

1913
1914
1915
1919
1920
1950
1980
1998
2000
2012

1913

The Co-operative has a long history with tea. From tea parties held in the 1860s to involve women in the society to the purchasing of their own tea estates in India and Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1902, The Co-operative Group has been leading the way on tea since it was founded. In 1913 the tea packing house previously located at 100 Leman Street in London moved to 99 Leman Street, giving the tea its name that still identifies today.
1914

In 1914, on the cusp of the first world war, The Co-operative struck out for fairness. At this time, you could not buy tea in packets like we do today, you had to buy tea by weight. The more it weighed the more you paid. However, The Co-operative Wholesale Society lobbied the Committee on Short Weight to argue that tea should not be weighed with its packaging as this meant you were paying for paper, not the tea that you really wanted.
1915-1919

Despite rationing laws during the first world war, The CWS provided nearly forty million pounds weight in tea and due to its support from co-operators a national fixed price was also established at this time making tea one of the few things that people could depend when other groceries were scarce.
1919

By the end of the war in 1919 The Co-operative were “the largest wholesale tea dealers in the country.”
1920

Once rationing was lifted the following year, CWS tea was sold at 1s 8d per lb making it the cheapest tea in the country and putting it within reach of the less well off customers.
1950

In the 1950s, when convenience shopping and self-service shops became popular, tea remained synonymous with The Co-operative in the public eye and was often used for advertising.
1980

In the 1980s, the Co-operative museum on Toad Lane in Rochdale, the site of the very first Co-op shop, painted the mural you see here to acknowledge and celebrate our proud history with tea.
1998

Leading the way again, following our commitment to Fairtrade and in keeping with our co-operative values and principles, The Co-operative announced in 1998 that 99 Tea was the first mainstream food product to be sourced and marketed on an ethical trading platform.
2000

Two years on our other two big tea ranges became 'soundly sourced', with the confirmation that leaves are only taken from tea estates that meet both the quality criteria and those for employee working and living conditions.
2012

Over the last few years we have taken our commitment to Fairtrade even further by supporting co-operatives who produce Fairtrade products, so that we can spread the message that co-operatives and Fairtrade really are the perfect blend.