Lipton Black Tea and Rainforest Alliance

Lipton Black Tea & Rainforest Alliance

Unilever is the world's largest purchaser of black tea, buying around 12% of the world's black tea supply. It owns Lipton, the world’s best-selling tea brand, with a market share nearly three times larger than its nearest rival. Unilever has committed to purchasing all its tea from sustainable, ethical sources, and has asked Rainforest Alliance to certify the farms from which it sources its tea.

Rainforest Alliance (RA) is an independent NGO that works with communities whose livelihoods depend on the land. They focus on reducing environmental impacts and increasing social and economic benefits. Rainforest Alliance certifies coffee, chocolate and bananas in products worth more than US$1 billion annually, including such brands as Starbucks and McDonald's.

Because of the enormous scale of the undertaking — there are 450,000 smallholder farms in Kenya alone — Unilever has given itself until 2015 to have all Lipton tea sold globally to be certified sustainably sourced. This is the first time a major tea company has committed to introducing sustainably certified tea on such a large scale.

The first tea farm to apply for Rainforest Alliance certification was Unilever's own tea estate in Kericho, Kenya. Kericho provides a benchmark for the improved standards of living Unilever hopes will be extended to more growers and pluckers in the developing world, as more tea estates and smallholdings become certified.

Other tea farms, in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Indonesia, India, Argentina and Sri Lanka are next to be certified, and followed eventually by thousands of farms in Africa, South America and South East Asia.

Unprecedented in its scale

Rainforest Alliance’s Executive Director, Tensie Whelan, said, "Unilever's commitment to take 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 as improve working conditions, and helping them access better markets and better prices."

Unilever chose Rainforest Alliance because of its experience in crops like coffee and fruit, its exacting standards and comprehensive certification process, which covers social, economic and environmental factors. 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.

Jonathon Porritt, Founder 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."