Certifying China by Yixian Sun

Author:Yixian Sun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Transnational governance; sustainability; eco-certification; China; agrifood chains; non-state actors
Publisher: MIT Press

5.1   The Rise of Eco-Certification in the Global Tea Market

Located in tropical and subtropical areas, most tea production regions are ecologically sensitive and underdeveloped. The commodity has therefore been associated with several sustainability issues. Biodiversity loss and land-use change are deemed the key environmental challenges, due to the expansion of monoculture plantations at the expense of tropical forests (H. Li et al. 2012; Owuor et al. 2018). Another major concern is the overuse of agrochemicals as pesticides and fertilizers, which have negative effects on both consumers’ health and the local environment. For instance, residues of hazardous pesticides have been found to be higher than the recommended limits in many tea products sold in China and India (Greenpeace 2012, 2016; Greenpeace India 2014). Moreover, labor rights violations—including exploitation, unsafe working conditions, and child labor—are prevalent in tea plantations across developing countries (van der Wal 2008; Wu 2009). Additionally, in the global tea supply chain, the value distribution has been highly uneven between upstream producers and a handful of multinational brands focusing on blending, packing, and marketing, and as a result, Southern producers hardly benefit from market growth and have few resources to improve their practices (Talbot 2002; van der Wal 2008; LeBaron 2018).

Despite the salience of these issues, tea was relatively late in becoming a dynamic field of eco-certification compared to other tropical commodities, such as coffee and cocoa. By the late 2000s, only a small group of stakeholders in the global tea supply chain were aware of corporate social responsibility and sustainability standards (van der Wal 2008). But rapid progress has been made since then with the development of tea standards by large transnational certification programs like Rainforest Alliance (RA). In the past decade, sustainable tea certification has experienced remarkable growth: as of 2017, around 19% of the area on which tea is harvested globally was certified to sustainability standards to supply at least 20.9% of the global production volume (Willer et al. 2019).2 At the time of writing, Fairtrade International, RA, and UTZ are the three major transnational eco-certification programs for tea, whereas organic certification is subject to national regulation in most countries.3 I now discuss these programs and their market uptake in China.

Fairtrade was the first transnational certification program to enter the tea sector back in the 1990s. The “fair trade” movement originally emerged in Europe to promote more equitable North-South trade by empowering producers to combat poverty, strengthen their position in value chains, and take more control over their lives through a premium set above world market prices (Raynolds 2000). Fairtrade International was created in 1997 as a global membership organization to coordinate different fair trade schemes that supported the sustainable development of small-scale producers and agricultural workers through a range of social, economic, and environmental requirements.4 In 2016, the program certified 3.1% of the global tea area (representing 4.3% of the global production volume), and most Fairtrade-certified areas were in Kenya, Uganda, and India (Lernoud et al. 2018). Fairtrade certification was introduced to Chinese producers relatively early, with the first certificate awarded in 2001 to a cooperative in Jiangxi.

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