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A mass rally to “Give Earth a Chance” at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on April 22, 1970, caught the imagination of the globe. Photo courtesy International Institute for Sustainable Development
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Certified organic tea plantation in Fujian Province, China. Photo by Łukasz Kurbiel
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Participants in the Virtual 24th Session of the FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea (IGG/Tea) hosted in Rome, Italy on February 23, 2022.
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UN Sustainable Development Goals for tea
This year, there is a sense of urgency as the world pauses to reflect on the planet’s health: Friday, April 22, marks 52 years of Earth Day advocacy.
The deadline for achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is now less than a decade away. The central message of COP 26, the most recent Climate Change Summit, is that governments need to step up their efforts to meet environmental targets. The tea industry is aware and engaged in addressing climate change. Producing countries are taking steps to mitigate crop loss from heat, protect soil, conserve water, and monitor the weather. Increased soil erosion and the high use of agrochemicals to maintain productivity levels make it critical to building the resilience of tea plantations.
But is climate mitigation sufficient to consider tea sustainable? No. Price volatility, labor issues, and trade barriers present equally troubling challenges.
The broad view is that sustainable agricultural industries are stable, the processing is efficient with minimum waste, farmgate prices exceed the cost of production, and workers are fairly compensated with a living wage. Sustainable practices add costs that some consumers are willing to pay, and, in return, these consumers rely on supply-chain transparency and compliance with standards verified by certifiers.
Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS)
Demand for VSS-compliant tea is concentrated in Europe and North America, driven by consumer interest in buying more healthy and sustainable products and the willingness of multinationals like Unilever and Twinings to comply with sustainable standards.
In the past decade multinationals have led private-sector efforts to boost certified sustainable tea production. Unilever/Ekaterra Tea’s milestone partnership with the Rainforest Alliance led majors to follow. Ekaterra has since pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030, sustainably sourced tea by 2023, and deploy regenerative agriculture for raw materials sourcing.
Voluntary certification by production volume grew by 57% from 2014 to 2018. Certified tea production is estimated at between 22.1% and 27.6% of total production, averaging 25%, according to International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Organic certification is the most common standard. The coffee sector has a high compliance rate, with at least 21% of the global coffee area under coffee certified by 2018 and at least 16% of the global area under tea certified by at least one standard, according to IISD.
Certifications can open new markets to growers at higher prices. “However, research suggests that demand for VSS-compliant tea is lower than supply, as the main tea-consuming countries, such as China and India, are also the top tea producers. Consumers in these countries tend to prefer conventionally grown options rather than more costly sustainable versions,” writes IISD.
“This trend might be shifting amid the growth of the middle class, which has more disposable income and prefers more ethical and premium tea,” notes IISD but three-quarters of the tea produced is retained for domestic consumption. “VSS-compliant tea must be affordable for local populations and cost-effective for tea producers to ensure market uptake,” notes IISD.
China, Japan, Indonesia, and India developed their sustainability programs, benefitting both domestic and export markets. Sixty percent of all certified organic tea imported by the US last year was from China. Export volume is up 32% year-over-year, and prices in January averaged $5.54 per kilo. Global buyers that otherwise would demand certification from VSS systems such as Utz or the Rainforest Alliance accept the domestic VSS such as India’s Trustea.
Earth Day 2022
This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest in our Planet.” The theme in 1970 was “Give Earth a Chance.” Arthur Hanson, an organizer of the first Earth Day, observed that “the biggest difference between 1970 and today is our ability to communicate globally about everything. In 1970 we were thrilled just to have a film crew show up… at that time, we talked about the Great Lakes dying; now we talk about global warming, climate change, and the worldwide environmental crisis.”
Hanson, former IISD president, writes that “we should make a Super Decade of the Environment in the coming years.”
“This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate,” write Earth Day 2022’s organizers. “Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, families, and livelihoods. For Earth Day 2022, we need to act (boldly), innovate (broadly), and implement (equitably). It’s going to take all of us. All in. Businesses, governments, and citizens — everyone accounted for and accountable. A partnership for the planet.”