Satemwa was Malawi's first Fair Trade certified producer of tea.

The Fairtrade Standards that concern Satemwa cover three major areas; Social Development, Economic Development and Environmental development. These can be summarised as follows:

- Social Development; This aspect serves to ensure that employees on the estate work under conditions acceptable to the International Labor Organisation and that they direct the use of the premium that is attained through Fair Trade sales.

- Economic Development; This aspect is primarily concerned with the use of the fairtrade premium. This premium is managed by the 'Joint Body' which is made up of members of the workers committee and members of management. Members of the workers comittee control the body in terms of votes and also executive positions. The main role of management is to help in the capacity building of the workers members.

- Environmental Development; as it sounds, this aspect concerns the protection of the environment. To this end, monitoring includes type of and use of pesticides, monitoring disposal of any waste, protection of indigenous fauna and flora etc.

Fairtrade certification fits naturally with Satemwa's ethos; where housing, schooling, medical facilities, environmental protection etc have been strategic issues for decades.

The fairtrade process however is no silver bullet and does pose a challenge to us, particularly going forward as the bar to certification is continually raised. At the end of the day, Fairtrade must be of economic benefit to the producer as well as to the blue collar employees of the producer. It remains to be seen whether FairTrade certification will benefit Satemwa economically and indeed if we can afford to continue with it in the years to come. Over the past 7 years, Satemwa has only averaged a profit before tax of 1.9% (expressed as a % of turnover).

Our news page will be updated from time to time with events from our journey into Fair Trade. In addition to this anette@fruitcakeunlimited.com will be documenting the Fair Trade story at Satemwa on film. Capturing how the company reacts to the changes influenced by Fair Trade and how the premium funds influence the lives of the Satemwa communities.

Read the Satemwa Joint Body blog www.workerscomittee.blogspot.com to join us on this journey through trials and hopefully triumphs

Keep in touch with our progress

 - Satemwa's 2008 audit report