Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Food & Agriculture

Trustea

Why do we need trustea?

More and more consumers globally are insisting that the products they pay for are sourced sustainably. This is no longer a western phenomenon. The Indian consumer is also becoming more aware and will soon demand that brands deliver sustainably sourced products. Which consumer would not like a safe product, which has been sourced in a way that has a positive impact on the livelihood of thousands of people and also the environment?

b. What is innovative in the trustea tea code?

  1. Ownership: Code is developed, owned and managed by Indian tea industry stakeholders.
  2. Food safety: Extensive focus on food safety components integrated into the code
  3. Good manufacturing practices: Tea manufacturing processes and other good practices covering tea factories in one code
  4. Lower certification cost: Innovative verification systems of external audits in alternate years and reduced cost due to the use of locally trained auditors.
  5. Smallholders: Brings in smallholders and small estates into sustainability fold. These groups were so far not part of the sustainable supply chains in India.
  6. Support: Invests in highly experienced field staff and field offices to assist the producers to be compliant with the code.

c. Who can be verified under the trustea code?

The certificate holder will be tea Plantation Company, the bought leaf factory, or the independent producer groups together with the factory. The code covers all aspects of production and manufacturing. The entry-point of the code for compliance will be the factories in estates, BLFs or grower group representative having an arrangement for processing, who will then work with the production sites and the smallholders respectively. See verification process

d. Who supports the trustea programme in India?

The trustea code is supported by a multi-stakeholder round table called the trustea Advisory Committee (tAC) -an informal assembly of key Indian tea industry stakeholders committed to working together to enhance the accountability and credibility of the tea programme in general and the Indian Tea Code specifically. The Tea Board of India chairs the tAC and actively supports the programme. HUL has set the target to source 100% of its Global Tea supplies from sustainable sources by the year 2020. HUL is aware that this will not happen overnight, but the journey needs to start now. For this reason it invests in the sustainability program with capacity building activities free of charge to producers. The other tea companies are in the process of joining the programme as well.

For more details please log on to http://www.trustea.org/ Please contact us to apply for Trustea Verification.