The Fair Trade Committee e-mailed Vutico. Vutico is a Production Manager for a tea firm in Malawi. See below to see Vutico’s answers to our questions:

Q1.How many days do you and your workers work per week?

A1.We work 6 days a week i.e. Mondays through Saturdays 48 hours week

Q2. What are your working hours?

A2. Our working hours is 8 hours

Q3.What benefits do your workers get from working in a fairtrade tea plantation?

A3.Our workers do not get any benefit for working in a fair trade tea plantation  however these benefits are meant for a smallholder farmer who sells Green leaf to our  Organization and in essence was meant to benefit from Training, farm inputs , protective equipment, Seedlings to infill field gaps or vacancies to boost harvest, Shared expertise for a long term business and various community projects. However, it sad to note that at the moment the Fair trade foundation that used to come in and work with us as a partner is no longer offering the support as before. As for us as a company, we provide : Free education to children, free medical care to employees and their families, free Ambulances, free housing, security, free meals during lunch breaks to workers in our plantations and we construct bridges and assist communities surrounding our plantations according to their requests.

Q4.How much tea does your plantation grow?

A4.We have a capacity of producing 18.2 million metric tons of made tea a year of which about 15-20%  is Small holder leaf. You can use Green leaf to made ratio of 22.5% to come up with total Green leaf before manufacture.

Q5.How many workers work in your plantation?

A5.We have close to 1,000,000 workers who work in our plantations. It important to know that we have 10 tea factories and the figure covers all the plantations . Indeed we are a huge employer.

Q6.Where does your company send the tea leaves to be made in to tea bags?

A6.Most of our Tea buyers are from oversees. Tetleys, Typhoo, Twinnings, Sainsburys  just to mention a few. Our customer does the tea bag as most of them are tea packers and blenders, we sell our product in large bulks.

Q7.What companies buy your tea leaves to sell in shops?

A7.James Finlays, Stansand, Ranfer, Global, Vanrees including the ones in (6)

Q8.Can you describe what the workers in your plantation do? What jobs do they do?

A8.Our workers carry out  various operations eg, Tea plucking being major, field cleaning, security of woodlots to avoid deforestation and related jobs to the plantation.

Q9.What is your job at the plantation?

A9.Being a well Seasoned  Production Manager for years with the company, I am now doing Tasting and Allocations of  Tea to different buyers according to a buyer`s spec.

Q10.Do you like your job?

A10.Very much I do like my job.

Q11. Do you like drinking tea or do you prefer drinking coffee?

A11.Tea is good for your health. Tea is friendship, be it with bread , biscuit or  without bread, tea will keep you refreshed, strong and ready for a party all night. I love and enjoy my good cup of tea than coffee.

             How I wish I could prepare the best cup of tea for your class!…… Keep well

                          Vutie.

 

 

Congratulations to the Fair Trade Committee who organised a great Fair Trade Coffee Afternoon. Pupils and their parents/carers enjoyed some tea, coffee, fruit juice, biscuits, bananas and pancakes – all Fairtrade of course! It also gave parents/carers the opportunity to look at the fair trade work that children have been completing in their classes during Fair Trade fortnight. The coffee afternoon was so well supported that we had to bring in more tables! Thank you to everyone who came along and to the pupils in the Fair Trade Committee who worked so hard to organise this event.

 

All classes were given a Fair Trade Challenge at the beginning of Fair Trade Fortnight. Classes submitted their display boards today. See below for the results.

Nursery & Primary 1

 

  

 

Nursery and Primary 1 pupils were given the Fair Trade logo to research. The found the logo on items at home and brought them to school to share with their friends. Nursery children completed some Fair Trade art work. Primary 1 pupils shared their thoughts on the logo.

Primary 2

Primary 2 pupils researched Fair Trade chocolate. They found out that chocolate is made from cocoa beans.

Primary 3

Primary 3 followed the story of ‘Pablo the Super-Banana’. They looked at the journey of a banana and made Fair Trade banana posters too.

 

Primary 4

Primary 4 pupils learned about Fair Trade coffee. They found out that some coffee beans are grown in Malawi.

Primary 5

Primary 5 researched tea production. They were able to find ten different countries around the world that grow tea.

Primary 6

Primary 6 learned about cotton. They looked at how clothes are made from the cotton plant. They even did their own cotton printing!

Primary 7

Primary 7 researched Fair Trade sugar. They found out that sugar cane is grown in Malawi and Mauritius. Pupils looked at how sugar cane is made in to refined sugar and used in lots of our foods. They  made their own lemonade and cake using Fair Trade sugar, both were delicious!

 

Well done to everyone for making such a huge effort to complete their Fair Trade challenge this Fair Trade Fortnight.

 

 

 

The Fairtrade Committee have been working very hard delivering assemblies and organising events. Their efforts have been recognised and have helped to renew our Fairtrade School status! We are a FairActive School! The Committee will now begin to work towards FairAchiever Status.

Everyone gathered in the school hall this morning to be given their Fair Trade challenge. Each year group was given an item to investigate during Fairtrade Fortnight. Children’s work will be ondisplay at our Fairtrade Coffee Afternoon next week.

The Challenge

Nursery & Primary 1 – Fairtrade Logo

Primary 2 – chocolate

Primary 3 – bananas

Primary 4 – coffee

Primary 5 – tea

Primary 6 – cotton

Primary 7 – sugar