Organisations from all over the globe are lending their support to a new campaign designed to help protect tea against challenges of the future. Known as the Tea 2030 project, the group will put their heads together to discover the problems facing the ever popular drink, as well as ways to overcome them. The International Tea Committee has also lent its support to the initiative, which will be overseen by Forum for the Future, a global sustainability non-profit. Dr Sally Uren, deputy chief executive of Forum for the Future, explained that shared understanding can make a real difference to how loose leaf tea is grown and consumed all over the world. "We have high hopes that Tea 2030 will deliver practical action that will secure a sustainable and successful future for the global tea industry," she commented. Three major challenges have been defined by the group, namely that tea is not currently traded the same way as other commodities - but some experts believe it could be by 2030. This would have several benefits, including improved market transparency. Another problem is increasing competition for land and climate change, which may lead to tea plantations being converted to other uses. Lastly, consumer trends may harm the tea industry - figures show that consumers in developing markets are more than twice as likely as those from developed backgrounds to purchase products because of social and environmental benefits.
