The Tea and Herbal Association of Canada held a mid-year meet up on Sept. 29, in lieu of having to postpone the North American Tea Conference for the second year in a row.
The two-hour event was titled “Level Up” and was designed to bring together the tea industry in order to inspire just that – levelling up. The event was concise but carried weighty subjects affecting the tea industry today, including the global logistics challenge, changing consumer habits and tea’s carbon footprint.
COVID’s Ripple Effect Within the Tea Industry
COVID-19 kicked off a ripple effect in many areas of the tea trade, including shipping and logistics. Bruce Rodgers, executive director of Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (or CIFFA), started off the event by speaking about how we got here and what to expect moving forward. He said COVID-19 lit the match that resulted in cancelled sailings, causing a container imbalance that combined itself with a five percent surge in consumer demand for global merchandise. That resulted in terminal congestions, infrastructure challenges and delays.
Add to that the change in the way we consume, worsening port congestions, persisting infrastructure challenges, and the doubling of the cost of materials to build new containers. Rodgers painted a true picture of the global logistic trade and cautioned the tea industry to prepare for much of the same well into 2025.
Consumers and Tea Shopping Patterns
From that sombre picture, Carman Allison, vice president of sales development for NielsenIQ, gave us an overview of where consumers shopping patterns have shifted, what habits have stuck, and what changes we’re starting to see. Overall, the tea industry saw large growth in 2020 – all in all, the pandemic may have served tea well. Yet, we find ourselves now in another foreign place – we’re neither pre-pandemic, pandemic nor post-pandemic. And, consumers are starting to shift some of their habits.
Allison explained that we’re already seeing signs of declines for the first time in over a year, and the two categories of consumers being assessed last year – “constrained” and “insulated” – have now been expanded to “constrained existing,” “constrained new,” “insulated cautious” and “insulated unrestricted.”
This truly is a sign of how complex things are becoming. In fact, “70 percent of Canadians are reducing or being cautious in their spending,” shared Allison. But, despite the slow down from 2020, both CPG and tea sales are still stronger than they were in 2019. Consumers are more comfortable with their new shopping habits than ever before, and although some are venturing back into traditional grocery stores, the big winner remains online shopping.
Tea’s Carbon Footprint
The “Level Up” event was capped off with two speakers on the topic of carbon footprint, looking at what it is, what does it mean for tea, and what can we do about it.
Some of you have heard me speak on the two shifts in what consumers value – the need for self-care and the desire for societal care. With these two values has come growing attention to the impacts the industry has on the environment. Consumers are having a hard look at how the daily choices they make are impacting the world around them and, in turn, asking the companies from whom they purchase products the same question.
The first speaker on the subject – Benjamin Kayatz, an environmental impact assessment specialist with Soil & More – set the stage by defining what a carbon footprint is. He said it’s “The balance of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere as well a the GHG removed from the atmosphere.” Kayatz stressed the importance of knowing your GHG emissions, which will then allow you to assess where meaningful impact can be made in order to reduce those emissions.
Dr. Tim Bond, Tea and Herbal Solutions, picked up the thread from Kayatz and demonstrated the complexity of the subject when applied to tea. Bond’s real-life examples based on work his company has done, illustrated the impact changes like fertiliser usage as well as agricultural and processing methods can have on GHG emissions.
Key however, in both Kayatz and Bond’s overview, was that there isn’t a one fit solution or assessment for the tea industry due to the complexity ingrained within – different growing regions, different tea types, different infrastructure. All agreed, however, that industry action was required. This segued well with my announcement that The Tea and Herbal Association of Canada and the UK Tea & Infusions Association have been working to analyse the carbon footprint of tea. Together, we’ve commissioned a review by Soil & More to produce a report collating the data and scientific reports on emissions and sequestration of tea with the ultimate purpose of providing guidance on this topic to members.
I started “Level Up” with the hope that our time together (albeit brief) would be important, timely and of value. Whether it’s overcoming a changing logistics landscape, adapting to new consumer habits or addressing our role in the environment around us, I hope that all the attendees were able to take away a little or a lot… and quite simply, “Level Up!”
Shabnam Weber is the president of The Tea and Herbal Association of Canada, the leading authority and industry voice on all things tea in Canada, representing members from bush to cup. The association provides proactive leadership in the areas of advocacy, generic promotion, education and information in order to ensure the long-term viability of the tea industry. It serves as a source of information and research about tea, and it offers a Tea Sommelier Certification program in Canada.