The impact that Fairtrade social premiums have for Kenyan workers and their families - gallery

Dennis Korir, 52, stands amid the tea bushes on his farm in Ainamoi, western Kenya. The father-of-five has diversified from tea, and now also produces fine beans and sugar snaps. He is a member of one of the Fintea cooperatives and says he has already benefitted from Fairtrade certification because he gets a fair price for his goods, which makes it easier to pay for necessities like school fees.
Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/Fairtrade

Sarah Chumo working on Dennis Korir's tea farm in Ainamoi.
Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/Fairtrade

In Britain, public awareness of Fairtrade products is very high. Sainsburys, the Co-operative and Marks and Spencer have converted all their own label tea to Fairtrade. In 2011 sales of Fairtrade products reached £1.32bn, an increase of 12% on the previous year.
Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/Fairtrade

Sarah Chumo picking tea
Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/Fairtrade

Joseph Cheriyot, 68, chairman of Fintea Farmers Cooperative.
Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/Fairtrade

The teapickers children go to school.
Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/Fairtrade

Mildred Ngesa teaching in her school's new library. The shelves are stocked with books bought using money from the sale of Fairtrade tea. The tea workers are paid a premium - an extra sum of money on top of the guaranteed minimum price - which must be used for investment in social, environmental or economic development projects.
Photograph: Fairtrade

Joan Chelangat, 18, in the library of the Marinyn secondary school in the Finlays tea plantation in Kericho, western Kenya. The library is stocked with books bought using the premium paid to pupils’ parents who harvest Fairtrade-certified tea on the estate. Headteacher Mildred Ngesa says the children are proud of what their parents have done.
Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/Fairtrade

The Fairtrade organisation is diversifying the products that it certifies. They support a Fairtrade flower farm in Naivasha.
Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/Fairtrade