Based in New York with farms in Eastern Nepal, the company尼泊尔茶集体正在努力创建一个从茶站到消费者的更透明，更公平的供应链。
Nishchal Banskota的父亲于1984年创立了Kanchanjangha茶园时，他想将他在尼泊尔东部的Phidim的社区摆脱贫困。在2016年接管庄园之后，班斯科塔仍在努力实现目标。
“茶不仅是一种饮料。它是社会变革的催化剂，”班斯科塔告诉食品坦克。w88优德老虎机平台
2016年，Banskota继承了庄园并推出了尼泊尔茶。该公司出售在Kanchenjunga山山麓上手工推动的有机茶。他们将茶包装在可生物降解的，手工编织的竹子和国际船上。
Although bamboo packaging is more time and labor intensive, Nepal Tea can employ a larger share of the community. Banskota believes consumers are willing to pay higher prices for products with greater social benefit. When it comes to business decisions, “uplifting communities is always a factor,” Banskota says.
Through vertical integration, Nepal Tea reports that they can better control the entire supply chain from farm to consumer. The company partners with regional tea producers, helping them to ensure the quality of their teas, as well as distribute a greater share of revenues to producers. Banskota tells Food Tank, “We take their product as a work of art and science and respect the tea farmers as artists.”
2019年，该公司推出了尼泊尔Tea Foundation为了通过三个关键重点领域（贫困，识字和社区成长）扩大社区中教育和就业机会的机会。该公司目前的目标是使100万农民摆脱这一代人的贫困。Banskota告诉食品坦克，转变为公共福利组织，将尼泊尔茶保持在高度的问责制和透明度上。w88优德老虎机平台“我们希望负责。”
Tea is the most consumed beverage in the world after water, according to the联合国食品和农业组织，茶消耗在19009年大流行期间上升。The Nepal Trade and Export PromotionCentre估计尼泊尔每年生产超过5200万磅的茶。
According to theSouth Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication，许多尼泊尔的茶农都面临许多挑战，包括在最低工资，食物和住房不足，设备不足以及没有个人保护设备的情况下接触强的农药。
A survey from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Nepal Tea and Coffee Development Board reveals that3 million workers are engaged in Nepal’s tea industry, but only 3,000 are permanent workers.没有永久性工作状态，临时工将无法获得最低工资。该调查还发现，茶业领导人通常无法维护尼泊尔的法律，该法律使工人在240天后享有永久地位。这些问题不成比例地影响占茶业劳动力74％以上的妇女。
In response to these issues, Banskota tells Food Tank that since the company’s conception, the company’s leaders have asked themselves, how can we create thriving, sustainable communities in tea-producing regions?
Covid-19-19的大流行和气候危机已经为这个问题带来了更多障碍，包括更大的经济脆弱性和降低的生产率。
At the onset of the pandemic, Nepal Tea responded by establishing a relief fund for tea farmers and their families. With the relief fund, Nepal Tea provided 100 community members with housing, 2,400 scholarships, and 182 cows as additional sources of income.
据Banskota称，该公司还听到农民的声音，气候危机威胁着茶的生产。尼泊尔茶的农民合作伙伴报告说，空前的干旱和冰雹导致生产力降低，并将农民的生计置于危险中。“农民告诉我们，他们损失了近接近冰雹的收益率的15％。”
But tea farmers can also be part of the solution to the climate crisis. Research in the环境管理杂志finds that each acre of tea has the potential to sequester over每年31,000磅二氧化碳- 等同于删除几乎7,000 vehicles从道路上。尼泊尔茶的农民也从不使用农药或肥料等化学物质，该公司帮助他们获得有机认证。
Looking ahead, Nepal Tea plans to hire new underrepresented tea farmers, plan more events to engage tea farmers with consumers, diversify its crops and introduce new spices and herbs, and open a school. The company is also working to build a blockchain ledger system to give consumers more information about every product. This represents a key piece of what they call a radical transparency movement.
The company hopes that creating a more transparent and equitable supply chain will have ripple effects throughout the entire tea industry. “Tea is just the start,” Banskota tells Food Tank.
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照片由尼泊尔茶提供
