Trustea India Sustainable Tea Code and Democratizing Agricultural Standards

trustea – the India Sustainable Tea Program is one of the world’s largest sustainable agriculture certifications for a single commodity in a single geography. It has verified over 790 million kg (over 60% of all tea produced in India) and disseminated sustainable agriculture practices to over 640,000 workers and 80,000 small tea growers. The program is supporting smallholder tea growers, bought leaf factories, estates, and tea packers to address some of the key challenges in the industry including human rights, health and safety, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, food safety, climate change, soil erosion, gender issues, and working conditions. The Code enables consumers to obtain tea that has been produced according to agreed, credible, transparent, and measurable sustainability criteria. The trustea program supports the tea industry in improving their competitiveness by positively influencing the scale of production, farm organization, processing, new technologies, supply chain development, market access, and regulatory compliance. trustea’s interventions are aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and have helped address a wide range of topics including long-term sustainability of tea farms, better lives and livelihoods, making tea farming a viable source of income, improved social and environmental standards, digital traceability system, and new marketing opportunities for smallholder farmers and women.