Rainforest Alliance certification
Unilever, the world's largest tea company, is to revolutionise the tea industry by committing to purchase all its tea from sustainable, ethical sources. It has asked the international environmental NGO, Rainforest Alliance, to start by certifying tea farms in Africa.
Lipton, the world's best-selling tea brand, and PG Tips, the UK's No.1 tea, will be the first brands to contain certified tea. The company aims to have all Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea bags sold in Western Europe certified by 2010 and all Lipton tea bags sold globally by 2015. This is the first time a major tea company has committed to introducing sustainably certified tea on such a large scale and the first time the Rainforest Alliance, better known for coffee certification, has audited tea farms.
Announcing the move in a speech to MBA students at INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France, Unilever CEO Patrick Cescau said: "This decision will transform the tea industry, which has been suffering for many years from oversupply and underperformance. It will not be achieved overnight, but we are committed to doing it because we believe it is the right thing to do for the people who drink our tea, the people along the entire length of our supply chain and for our business.
It has the potential to reassure consumers about the source of the tea they enjoy drinking so much; to improve the crops, incomes and livelihoods of nearly one million people in Africa and, eventually, up to two million people around the world; to protect the environment from a further drain on its resource and to provide us with a means by which we can differentiate our brands from those of our competitors."
Supporting sustainable tea production
Unilever has a long history of developing sustainable agriculture and a strong record in driving good practice in tea cultivation, manufacture and supply. In 2002 Unilever published its own sustainable agriculture guidelines for tea cultivation.
Unilever has asked the Rainforest Alliance to start auditing its tea suppliers with immediate effect. The first tea farm to apply for certification will be Unilever's own tea estate in Kericho, Kenya, which has pioneered sustainable tea production for many years. Other tea farms, in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Indonesia, India, Argentina and Sri Lanka, will follow. Eventually, certification will extend to thousands of farms in Africa, South America and South East Asia. The first certified tea will be made available to restaurants and the catering trade in Europe from August 2007.
Commenting on the announcement, Tensie Whelan, Executive Director, Rainforest Alliance said: "Unilever's commitment to make its entire tea supply sustainable is unprecedented in its scale. We are delighted to be working with Unilever to bring better management practices to two million people, helping them to protect water and wildlife as well improve working conditions and help them access better markets and better prices."
Rainforest Alliance was chosen by Unilever because of its experience in crops like coffee and fruit, its exacting standards and the comprehensiveness of its certification process, which covers social, economic and environmental factors. These include water conservation, wildlife protection, fair treatment and good working conditions for workers, and soil management and conservation. Certification will enable growers to improve the quality of their tea, increase their competitiveness and ensure a more sustainable income stream. Based on Rainforest Alliance experience with other crops, it is expected that certified tea will command higher prices than current average prices paid at auction. Unilever estimates that it will be paying farmers around €2 million more for its tea by 2010 and around €5 million more by 2015.
Jonathon Porritt, Founding Director of Forum for the Future, who advises Unilever on sustainability issues, said: "This is an extraordinary commitment by Unilever, which will make a huge difference to a very large number of people in Africa and elsewhere. Unilever has led the way on sustainable agriculture for more than a decade, and this decision confirms that leadership role - one which I very much hope many others will now follow."
