‘BUY ME’ Emblems and Slogans

/ / Published in Lessons on Tea, Selection, Tea

Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, Heart Tick, Ethical Partnership, Conservation, UTZ, PETA, Organic Certified, Halal, Kosher, Australian Made, etc. etc.

These are some of the emblems that adorn packages of food and beverages that are sold in supermarkets in Australia.

At the rate they are increasing the sizes of the cartons will have to increase substantially to accommodate all the emblems that Companies attach to their product.

In the very competitive world of supermarkets every slight advantage over your competitor may lead to increased sales, but frankly it is getting ridiculous.

One supplier has even started his own charity/organisation and gave it a name and dubiously trumpets the fact that his company provides amenities and assistance to tea workers that no one else provides!

The reality is that very little benefit goes direct to workers from these schemes, which are controlled and operated in large capital cities many miles away and even continents away from where the workers reside.

While it may contribute to the ‘feel good’ factor all that they generally do is increase prices further.

Buy your teas from reputable and long established companies whose quality ensures that high quality teas are sourced from well run plantations that do not exploit their workers.

Almost 40 years ago I realised that the quality of teas being imported into Australia were of poor quality. The proliferation of teabags and a pricing regime enforced by the major supermarket chains had led to a noticeable drop in quality. Elmstock Tea Company was born out of this background in 1979. I had started my working life at 17 in the Tea Plantation/Accounts Department of a large company in Colombo. My family had connections to the tea trade and prior to that coffee and sugar plantations in Ceylon since the 1840s – an unbroken and direct link of over six generations. Many of the plantations started by or managed by my great grandparents still produce some of the teas we buy today! After migrating to Australia in 1972 I graduated from Curtin University and qualified as an accountant (CPA). I worked and managed large public companies involved in the wool trade for many years and was also involved with the listing of public companies on the ASX. Elmstock have been wholesaling premium quality teas and herbal infusions sourced from the best plantations for almost 40 years. We decided over twenty five years ago not to deal with the major supermarket chains as we did not want to compromise tea quality and revert to the ‘mediocrity of the pack’ which is entirely price driven.

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