who grew your tea?

We tend to think of tea as being grown on big sweeping estates and a lot of it is.

But 70% of the world’s tea is grown by smallholder farmers; that’s farmers with less than 1 hectare of land on average - basically, a really big tea garden.

You can read about the farmers that grow SPILL tea here.

Emmanuel, Lucie and Sandrine in their tea field (right) and the view from their home (left)

MEET Gianpierre, Cartas, happy...

... and baby Brighten who is hiding in this photo, fast asleep against his mum's back.

Gianpierre has been growing tea since 2018 when he bought a small piece of land straight out of school. It was a very small piece - just 0.04 hectares (that's 4% of a football pitch).

They now have nearly 4 football pitches worth of tea - with eyes on more!


Gianpierre and Cartas look after all aspects of tea growing themselves except one - drinking it.


"How do you drink your tea?" we ask.

"We don't drink tea" they say. Big grins.

"But your tea is so good!" we say.

"We like it sweet " they say, "and sugar is expensive"


They drink banana juice instead.

In Rwanda, tea is a sweet drink.
We tell them we drink our tea without sugar.
Everyone thinks we're mad.

Callixte, General Manager of Rugabano Outgrower Services, their offices

SPILL tea is single origin; it’s from Rugabano in Rwanda.

Spill Farmer Model

Better tasting tea

Source quality tea that tastes great, not "meh"

better farmer price

Pay more for better quality tea

Pay beyond Fairtrade
Put more cash in the farmer's pocket

We'll SPILL

Be open about payments to farmers

Good Tea. Nothing To Hide.

SPILL pays $3 / kilo - 50% above Fairtrade
Plus, an additional farmer payment $0.50 / kilo.

Meet the farmers

Do you grow your potatoes in pots?

Laurent: Farmer 1
Starting growing tea: 2007
Tea field: 0.8 hectares
Wants: An iPhone and an olive tree

Before growing tea, Laurent grew plantain and potatoes and traded them in local markets.

Smallholder farmer headshot outside home in Rugabano, Rwanda

Everything I have is because of tea...

Gianpierre and Cartas: Farmers 4 & 5
Started growing tea: 2018
Tea field: 0.4 hectares
Wants: More land for more tea!

We met Gianpierre, Cartas, and baby Brighten during our first visit to Rugabano. Gianpierre tells us how everything he has he has bought with tea!

Everything I have is because of tea...

Are you ready yet?

Emaunel & Lucie - Farmers 2 & 3
Part 2

In March 2023, we visited smallholder tea farmers Emanuel and Lucie at Rugabano in Rwanda for the second time. They updated us on how tea growing was going for them.

Are you ready yet?

For The Farmer – A Better Price

For The Farmer – A Better Price

For The Farmer – A Better Price