Kel Kelly and Peggy Carswell are two community development workers who live on Vancouver Island - off the west coast of Canada - for part of the year, and in the northeastern corner of Assam, India for the remainder of the year.
Since 1999, we've been meeting and working with tea growers in Assam's Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur districts. With the help of volunteers and friends from Canada and other parts of India, we've been able to provide information, technical assistance and encouragement that's making it possible for young growers like Rajesh Singpho and Gobin Hazarika to grow, process and market their organically-grown tea on a small-scale basis.
We work in cooperation with Fertile Ground: East/West Sustainability Network, a non-profit organization that has established a 2 acre demonstration garden in Digboi, Assam. At the Adarsh Seuj Prakalpa resource centre, farmers, tea growers, students, agricultural extension staff and people from nearby towns and villages learn to make compost, to identify and control insect pests and to take a more eco-friendly approach to growing crops.
We hope this site will provide a forum for people to learn about some of the challenges and successes these small growers are facing in this very beautiful and culturally-diverse part of the world.
ethically-traded rare and flavourful teas from Assam
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For almost a century, tea produced in Assam has primarily been grown in large plantations. Most of these large estates are owned by companies and corporations located outside northeastern India.
In the early 1990’s, a number of Assamese families began planting and cultivating tea in an effort to improve their livelihoods. Today, most of the tea leaves they harvest are sold to bought-leaf factories - often at prices that barely cover production costs.
Without access to small-scale processing equipment, technical and educational support or a market for their teas, many of these growers and their families are struggling simply to survive.
The small tea co-operative is dedicated to assisting some of Assam’s small tea growers to develop the capacity to process and market their tea.
We’re pleased to be able to bring a limited quantity of these very special teas to tea shops and retailers here in Canada.
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Contact the small tea co-operative
- the small tea co-operative
- Box 179, Merville, British Columbia, Canada
- For more information about our products and our work in Assam, contact us at smallteacoop@yahoo.ca
1 comment:
Hola Kel & Peggy,
Thanks for your recent email to Just Us! and congratulations on the work that you have been doing,"your labour of love" with the Assam small tea cooperative producers. It brought back memories of Jambi Kiwa in Ecuador. These small farmers are mostly women and produce medicinal and herbal plants for the domestic and export market. Just Us! helped them finance their tea bag and boxing machine. We currently are selling 5 of their herbal teas, two of them blends. A case study has been done with JK about their experience and I'd be glad to send you a printed copy if you are interested. Their website is: http://www.jambikiwa.com/
If you are interested in distributing these herbal teas on the West Coast please let me know so that I can put you in touch with our Sales Dpto. I'll also let them know about your offer.
Continued good luck with your work.
Saludos,
Tom
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