Organic certification can be contentious in the tea industry. Ultimately whether or not to buy and sell organically certified teas is about consumer choice. With much corruption within some tea growing countries, organic certification doesn't always mean that the tea is actually organic. Additionally, organic certification is expensive so some growers who use organic techniques are unable to afford the certifications.
In some areas, it is really difficult for the growers to get enough nutrients into the soil, especially on very steep plantations, using organic techniques, so whilst they don't use pesticides, they may use some artificial fertiliser to help their plants to grow.
The main point to note here is that organic teas are not always better and that there are sometimes very good reasons why teas are not certified organic.
We are able source organic teas and already hold a stock of some organically certified products. Usually organic teas and herbs are considerably more expensive without any specific quality increase.
There are strict rules in regards to labelling of organic products. Organic labelled products must have at least 95% of the ingredients as organic.
• If you are weighing out or serving organic products certified in the EU by your supplier in front of the customer, you can state that the products are organic.
• If you are retailing pre-packed EU certified organic products that you have not re-packaged yourself, you can sell the product as organic if you state the organic certifiers details on the label and you do not need your own certification. You must also use the control body's code number.
• If you are retailing pre-packed EU certified organic products that you have re-packaged yourself, then you must have your own organic certification. You must also use the control body's code number on your label.
• You can also list organic ingredients in non-organic products using the rules above.
More information can be found on the gov.uk website.
