The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) evolves to maximise its impact on the global tea sector
The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) is pleased to announce it is evolving to maximise its effectiveness in improving the lives of tea workers and assuring its members’ supply chains.
The ETP is an international non-competitive alliance of 20 tea packers who share a vision of a thriving industry that is socially just and environmentally sustainable. The new approach will see the ETP build on its long-standing estate monitoring work by establishing new relationships with certification programmes, governments, NGOs, and other specialists to deliver increased social and environmental improvements.
One significant driver of this increased effectiveness is that the ETP
will no longer monitor any tea estate which has achieved certification
status from Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade or UTZ CERTIFIED. Avoiding
duplication in this way will reduce the audit burden on tea producers
and enable the ETP to concentrate its resources on producers that are
not currently being monitored by certification programmes.
ETP’s
co-operation with certification programmes will help streamline the
certification process for tea estates and increase the speed at which
tea from certified producers enters the market. If an ETP member is
interested in part of their supply chain becoming certified and the tea
estate is interested in certification, the ETP will now work with the
producer and certification body in question to achieve this as
efficiently as possible.
“Co-operation amongst environmental and
social standards systems is essential if they are to fulfil their
potential in scaling up critical environmental and social impacts.
ETP’s collaboration with independent third-party certification systems
and the fact that it brings together such a large proportion of the tea
industry gives it the potential to enable significant change in the tea
sector”. Sasha Courville, Executive Director, ISEAL Alliance.
ETP’s
social and environmental improvement work will be underpinned by its
new global monitoring standard. This is being rolled out across estates
that supply ETP members and are not involved in any certification
programmes. It covers key elements of all the relevant certification
programmes, which will help ease the transition for any producers who
become interested in certification at a later date. ETP’s monitoring
remains free to producers.
The ETP plans to increase its work on
the ground with government departments, NGOs, UN bodies, and technical
specialists, on projects designed to help producers make practical and
sustainable improvements, in particular to the lives of their workers.
New capacity building partnerships will continue the ETP’s track record
of bringing about improvements in a wide range of areas, including
market access, living and working conditions and health and safety.
Leading
the ETP into the next exciting stage of its development is new
Executive Director Sarah Roberts who has a background in development
work and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Sarah is supported by a team
in the UK and a network of Regional Managers based in India, China, Sri
Lanka, Kenya, and Indonesia. These are local people with wide ranging
experience of the tea sector, development skills and enabling
sustainable change.
“The ETP has the potential to make a
difference at scale, rather than just on the margins. With its 12 years
of experience, detailed first-hand knowledge of the tea sector and
continual engagement with producers, the ETP is uniquely placed to
drive sustained change within the tea sector.
I am looking
forward to building on the many practical improvements that the ETP has
already brought about, from resolving tricky labour issues in East
Africa and Sri Lanka to health and safety improvements in Indonesia and
China”. SARAH ROBERTS, Executive Director, ETP.
Today’s news
builds on 12 great years of work by the ETP. It reflects a significant
step forward and extends the relevance of the ETP’s work in line with
the changing demands of its many and varied stakeholders.
