How Fairtrade tea began

Mike Brehme, Founder of Clipper Teas

Despite the UK being big tea drinkers, the large majority of tea consumed is not Fairtrade.  Tea pickers receive extremely low incomes which amongst other devastating consequences in the battle to survive in these communities.

More about Mike

Mike Brehme is co-founder of Clipper Teas the market leading Fairtrade tea brand. Mike established Clipper in the mid 1980’s having first trained as a tea taster and buyer. As Managing Director, he ran the business for 25 years until 2008.

Mike’s ethical tea journey began in 1990 with the realisation that in a movement just getting started there were no reliable models and different ideas about what fair trade should be. At the forming of the Fairtrade Foundation in the early 1990’s Mike was an advisor on tea before Clipper launched the first teas to carry the Fairtrade mark in 1994.

What to expect

Mike talks about the setting up Clipper Teas, his work advising the Fairtrade Foundation and why he thinks there is a lack of Fairtrade tea in the market.

He shares how he’s witnessed Fairtrade tackle the extreme inequality that exists in these tea communities, and how he’s seen the wildlife benefits of organic tea plantations.