Sustainable tea

Our commitment

Lipton has committed to source the tea for all its tea bags from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms by 2015. We are working with Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental organisation, to ensure that all the farms we source from are certified.

We decided that the Rainforest Alliance certification was the most appropriate because of its comprehensive approach towards sustainable farm management, covering social, economic and environmental aspects. This is very much in line with the way we have been managing our own Sustainable Agriculture Programme over the last ten years.

Progress in 2008

Although our commitment pledge was only announced in 2007, more than 30 estates have already achieved Rainforest Alliance Certified™ status, including Unilever's own estates in Kenya and Tanzania and third-party suppliers in India and Argentina. By the end of 2008 around 50% of Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea sold in Western Europe came from Rainforest Alliance Certified ™ farms.

More recently, eight South Indian farms and four estates in Indonesia have gained certification. These are typically family businesses of around 300 to 500 hectares and together support 3 500 workers and their dependants. To achieve certification, the farms invested in a range of improvements, including protective suits for workers dealing with agrochemicals, waste water treatment equipment and micro hydro- electric schemes. In South India, workers also benefit from free housing, medical facilities and school education for every child.

The Rainforest Alliance seal was instrumental in winning a contract to supply tea for McDonald's in several European countries. Following the launch, we have seen our market share increase in our key European markets.

Lipton partners with National Geographic to tell sustainability story

In the US, Lipton launched a partnership with National Geographic to tell consumers about its work with the Rainforest Alliance. Called SustainabiliTea, the partnership coincided with the launch of Rainforest Alliance Certified™ Lipton tea in US stores in May 2009.

National Geographic travelled to Lipton’s Kericho tea estate in Kenya to document the benefits of Rainforest Alliance certification. A SustainabiliTea website contains videos, photographs and interactive features introducing consumers to the principles behind sustainable tea production and the history of Lipton tea.

Training smallholder tea farmers in Kenya

Unilever participated in a public-private partnership to train smallholder farmers in sustainable tea cultivation through special field schools, working with the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), the UK's Department for International Development, Wageningen University in the Netherlands, development organisation ETC East Africa and the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya.

The field schools, based at four factories where farmers bring their tea for weighing and collection by the KTDA, offered a hands-on experience, encouraging farmers to talk about common problems, find their own solutions and devise field experiments to identify sustainability best practice. The farmers received practical guidance – for example, on keeping tea bushes the same height to improve harvesting efficiency – accompanied by courses on book-keeping and health and safety.

The three-year project, which started in March 2006 and concluded in December 2008, improved farmers' tea yields by an average of between five and 15%. The training also encouraged participants to apply for Rainforest Alliance certification. Two factories, used by 19 000 farmers, were certified as 'sustainable' by the Rainforest Alliance in the first half of 2009. The remaining two factories, used by 17 000 farmers, are on track to achieve certification by September 2009.

According to Michiel Leijnse, Lipton's Global Brand Development Manager, the project has been a great success for Lipton: "By educating farmers about sustainability in preparation for Rainforest Alliance certification, we're helping the environment as well as improving the farmers' long-term economic prospects." Michiel concludes: "It also makes sound business sense... ensuring we have a long-term supply of tea from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms, which we know is important to our consumers and retailers."

Smallholders say that, as a result of their participation, they have changed the way they manage their crops, and they feel more knowledgeable and empowered. They value the schools and want to see them continue with a wider curriculum.

The KTDA has begun rolling out the field school model to its remaining 55 factories and 500 000 farmers by 2013. Around a third of these factories will be reached by the end of 2010, along with many thousands of farms using each factory. 

A brochure describing the project was published in August 2009. 'The Farmer Field School Project: Growing Sustainable Tea in Kenya' is available as a download in related links.