AhmadTea Ltd
Tea pickers in Sri Lanka.
Ahmad Tea has partnered with the Oxfam Water Project in Niger.
Ahmad Tea is a family-owned company, founded on a passion for making the finest teas and dedicated to inspiring the love of tea. Its ethos, which runs through the whole company, is that everything it does should create a brighter future for everyone involved in the tea journey: from the people who tend the tea gardens it sources from, to its sustainable production and conscious distribution through its international network. The company uses a model of local, direct action and is also able to ensure that, as a company, a minimum of 20% of its profits every year are given directly to organisations who work in the places where it sells its tea. This means that these projects can have the biggest impact. The team are delighted that their hard work has been recognised by a King’s Award for Enterprise for the company’s Sustainable Development programmes. They say: “Founded in 1986, we are an independent, family-owned and run business based in Hampshire. Predominantly we are an export business and, in 2023, we exported our teas, infusions and gifts to more than 65 countries. We are one of the UK’s largest tea producers and one of the world’s largest independent tea companies. We have an unequivocal commitment to quality, innovation, sustainability and charitable giving, and these foundations have been instrumental to our success. “Throughout our business we’ve identified four main areas where we can make a real difference: reducing our impact on the environment; access to education and employment; the right to clean
water and sanitation, and finally the right to health. We endeavour to ensure that the help we give will have a lasting impact and be repeatable. Moreover, we aim to ensure that the knowledge we gain can be shared with organisations, NGOs and charities so that the work can be continued and expanded upon.” Providing clean water in Niger For over 10 years, the company has partnered with Oxfam in projects in Niger, a landlocked country in Africa that is affected by persistent drought. To date, it has ensured that 62,000 people have access to clean water and has done this through drilling 20 bore holes and rehabilitating 27. The project has taken advantage of the estimated 2.5 billion cubic metres of renewable water, which sits deep below the ground’s surface and is only accessible by drilling. Central to Ahmad Tea’s approach has been a commitment to ensuring not only that water is available, but that any water installation is led by the needs of the community. As part of the project, it has focused on female empowerment and has supported 16 women’s groups who have been given the equipment and training to create their own market gardens. These gardens help improve nutrition within the community and also create an income to help girls to attend school. In the tea gardens Since 2019, Ahmad Tea has partnered with Child in Need Institute India to amplify the voices of local communities in the tea gardens, advocate for
change and support women through childbirth, motherhood and more. To date, the partnership has: • Supported 1,586 women in Assam with improved maternity services. • Raised the health and safety of children in the tea gardens with special support in the first 1,000 days of their life. • Nourished 2086 children through its nutrition programme. • Created child-friendly tea gardens, with a focus on health, nutrition and sanitation. In Kenya, 70% of tea gardens are tended by women, yet their menstrual health is often overlooked. In partnership with Alstar, a female- owned ethical organisation, and Ruby Cup, a menstrual cup brand, the team at Ahmad Tea offered these women choice. They have funded a pilot programme, which is providing 1,200 menstrual cups during a two-part workshop on reproductive health.
The Kenya Menstrual Cup Project.
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