A recent survey by ISEAL’s partner Solidaridad shows that India’s burgeoning middle class is increasing not just its consumption but its ethical consumption of tea and coffee. The Consumer Survey on Sustainable Tea and Coffee Consumption set out to discover what attitudes consumers had to purchasing tea and coffee domestically. Solidaridad works closely with ISEAL members SAI and UTZ Certified.
Good coffee and tea is no longer just a matter of taste, quality and price. Today’s consumer increasingly demands assurances that the process of picking the leaves and beans, of packing them and retailing them are done responsibly, sustainably and with no harm to the environment or the worker.
This is no longer just a Western concern. The emergence of domestic markets in Asia has given rise to an increasing awareness of fair trade issues. China’s double digit growth rate may make the headlines but India seems ahead in its awareness of sustainability. This is in part due to a well informed and rapidly growing Indian middle class.
Estimates vary on how large this middle class is with numbers quoted between 30 and 300 million. If mobile phone and credit card usage are reasonable indicators the truth is probably near the middle. This growth is not just seen as an economic driver of general domestic produce (native grown tea and coffee are increasingly finding their way into the cups of Indians) but also as a driver for the sustainable production of these goods.
“There are several reasons why Indian consumers are becoming more conscious of their choices,” says Dr Shatadru Chattopadhayay, the South and South East Asia director for Solidaridad, “for a start the young middle class consumers travel all over the world and observe the ethical brands and consumer choices made in northern countries. Education and growing consciousness ensure that consumers are increasingly concerned not just about good quality products but also about the impact their consumption makes on society and the environment.”
This is important for two reasons. This burgeoning middle class is a reasonable indicator of the choices that will be made in developing countries in the future which logically means that we can expect a giant step in the growth of certification.
The tea and coffee that was once exported from India is increasingly finding its way into the cups of Indians – India is now the largest consumer of tea worldwide. The country is also one of the fastest growing coffee markets in the world growing at six per centhttp://www.isealalliance.org/sites/all/modules/extlink/extlink.png); background-position: 100% 50%;"> per annum. This shift is further aided by the fact that differences in prices of tea between Indian markets and the European markets are steadily coming down. It is no longer the simple equation of Northern consumers buying from Southern producers.
Findings
This survey was conducted among 520 individuals and 20 institutions (hotels, airlines, educational facilities) in Delhi and Bangalore. As the report says “It was decided to include these two cosmopolitan cities as the respondents were fairly educated and well to do. They were exposed to foreign brands and were expected to be familiar with the issues related to sustainable consumption.”
The survey shows that about a third of consumers were concerned with whether the farmers got a fair price, that the companies marketing the two beverages procured them from farmers following sustainable agricultural practices, and that these institutions themselves followed good labour practices for their employees.
The most important factors for the Indian tea and coffee consumer are taste, quality, flavour, certification and the impact on health.
In fact roughly half of all respondents thought certification was an important criteria in their purchase of coffee and tea.
Half of respondents were aware of sustainable coffee/tea but wanted more information about the methods of cultivation, use of safety standards and the social and environmental impact of cultivating tea/coffee.
Forty per cent were willing to pay more than ten per cent more for sustainable tea and coffee while a third would like issues addressed concerning independent third party interests. They want some trustworthy mechanism, to be assured their brand is money well spent.
What are the hurdles to certification? Doubts of truthfulness, lack of information, concern for value for money.
Of the institutions surveyed half feel that they can do something, a third put pressure on retailers and around 60 per cent would pay more for sustainable tea/coffee.
Solidaridad is a networked international development cooperation organisation, which was established in 1976 in The Hague, Netherlands. It has been a pioneer and developer in the field of corporate social responsibility and has initiated programmes like Max Havelaar coffee, Oké banana, UTZ Certified and MADE-BY. Solidaridad along withits partners UTZ Certified has a programme to develop national sustainability standards for tea and coffee in India in partnership with key national stakeholders from a bottom-up perspective. For more information, please contact:info [at] solidaridad [dot] in; shatadru [at] solidaridad [dot] in).