A bitter cup: the truth behind Britain's favourite drink

|
Plantation worker

War On Want claim many tea pickers in Kenya suffer from exploitation

Watch this film examining how tea workers in the developing world struggle to get by on poverty wages while British supermarkets make huge profits
 

War on Want's report, A Bitter Cup, focussing on tea workers in Kenya and India, revealed the poor conditions for many tea workers supplying the UK.

Based on interviews with workers, it shows that although the tea industry is booming and supermarkets are cashing in, workers are harassed, poorly paid and denied trade union rights on tea plantations and in tea packing factories. Supermarkets have invariably failed to use their influence to improve this situation, so War on Want has been campaigning for the UK government to implement binding regulatory measures to protect workers overseas.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL 'WHAT'S IN YOUR CUPPA?' SPECIAL INVESTIGATION HERE (PDF)

Add to StumbleUpon
  READ MORE...
NEWS ANALYSIS
Special report PG Tips and Lipton tea hit by 'sexual harassment and poor conditions'
Unilever and the Rainforest Alliance deny female employees at the Kericho tea plantation in Kenya are subjected to sexual harassment. But Dutch research outfit SOMO paints a very different picture of life for some working at the plantation? Verity Largo visits Kenya to investigate
NEWS ANALYSIS
Special report Revealed: the bitter taste of Cambodia’s sugar boom
Sugar may seem innocuous enough, but sweet-toothed Western consumers could be fuelling conflict between poor farming communities and big business with every spoonful. Sam Campbell reports from Phnom Penh
NEWS ANALYSIS
Special report Milk: why the white stuff leaves a bad taste
Unlike tea and sugar, the fresh milk we drink with our cuppa is likely to come from farms in the UK. But as Tom Levitt reports, there are still serious environmental and animal welfare problems associated with the UK dairy sector
NEWS ANALYSIS
Special report Sugar: why our favourite sweetener is not so sweet
Sugar can be produced from both sugar beet and sugarcane. Sugarcane production is of particular concern in terms of environmental degradation and human rights abuses, reports William McLennan
NEWS ANALYSIS
Special report Environmental damage and human rights abuses blight global tea sector
Human rights violations have been reported at plantations in virtually all major tea producing countries, while tea growing itself has a profound effect on the local environment. William McLennan reports

More from this author