Partnerships

Living sustainably has become a conscious decision for many of us in the meantime. At TEEKANNE, we have also consciously opted for sustainability, even if this has always been a fundamental component of our corporate DNA as a long-standing family business. It is of great importance to us to live and breathe sustainability day after day and to align our business activities accordingly. Partnerships are an essential component of this. This is because we firmly believe that a close and long-term relationship with our suppliers is the best way forward to a more sustainable future for us all.

Responsibility starts with the Quality of the Raw Materials

As a quality brand and long-standing successful tea company, our requirements for the raw materials for our teas have always been extremely high. This is because it is clear to us that only the best raw materials guarantee excellent tea creations of a consistently high quality.

And we also know that our raw materials are only of such a high quality because we ensure that our suppliers around the world guarantee optimal cultivation. This is precisely why it is of the utmost importance for us to take responsibility where the foundation for our high-quality raw materials is laid: in the countries of origin.

This means that we have known our suppliers personally for decades and often work together with members of the second generation. We are very proud of our supply chain – which is unparalleled for a tea company – and an important unique selling point is that we source the majority of our raw materials directly. These direct partnerships with our suppliers not only ensure complete transparency, they also enable us to consciously influence the quality of the raw materials in face-to-face discussions and to work together on the continuous improvement of social and environmental standards.

At the Heart of our Unique Supply Chain: Honesty and Respect

TEEKANNE is a family business and so we see ourselves as one big family, which includes not only our employees but also our suppliers. In this context, it is very important to us to maintain an honest, fair and respectful relationship with each other and to establish essential rules that we expect our suppliers to follow. In return, our partners can rely on us at all times and know that we will keep to our agreements.

The TEEKANNE Guidelines

Compliance with social and environmental standards in the production of our raw materials is an obligation for us. Many of our raw materials come from Africa and Asia, where their cultivation represents an important source of income and development opportunity for the people. In this context, it goes without saying that we are aware that working conditions which are taken for granted in Central Europe are not always respected in these regions or that the environment is damaged by some unsustainable agricultural practices. We therefore see it as our duty to counteract this.

We require all our suppliers to make a binding commitment to comply with our social and environmental standards on the basis of a clearly defined Standards and Practices Policy, our “TEEKANNE Code of Conduct”.

The “TEEKANNE Code of Conduct”

However, we do not leave our suppliers to implement the “TEEKANNE Code of Conduct” on their own. Our buyers and cultivation experts help them with their agricultural practices and with bringing their daily activities into line with the required sustainability. Our employees travel to the countries of origin at regular intervals and maintain long-standing relationships with our suppliers.

The TEEKANNE Policy for the Sustainable Purchase of Tea, Herbs and Fruits

Our Sustainability Policy for Tea, Herbs and Fruits serves as an important guideline for our suppliers. It represents our basic strategic focus in the procurement of our raw materials and formulates our short, medium and long-term goals. In this way, we also help our suppliers to adapt to changed or new requirements at an early stage.

TEEKANNE Code of Conduct (German Version)
TEEKANNE Policy for Sustainable Purchase of Tea, Herbs and Fruits (English Version)

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Active Responsibility and Certified Sustainability

Continuous improvement is important to us. We have therefore been supported by the IMO – the Ecocert IMOswiss - for many years. This internationally recognized monitoring organization helps us to ensure compliance with the most important social standards on the one hand and to identify the need for action at our suppliers on the other. This enables us to address them directly.

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Rainforest Alliance Certified

In 2012, TEEKANNE was one of the first tea companies to import Rainforest Alliance Certified tea products, thereby bringing even more sustainability to Austrian tea shelves. We are proud that our black and rooibos teas are 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified in the meantime. We already purchase exclusively Rainforest Alliance Certified raw materials for our green teas, too. Our goal is to continuously increase the proportion of certified herbal and fruit teas.

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Membership of Sedex

TEEKANNE has been a member of Sedex since 2019. The data platform provides transparency for the sustainability efforts of companies and shows our business partners that we also work ethically and socially sustainably in our company. It also helps us to better identify potential risks within our supply chain.

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Fairtrade-certified

TEEKANNE has been purchasing Fairtrade-certified green and black tea since 2003, making it one of the first major tea brands on the Austrian market to do so. Fairtrade identifies goods that originate from fair trade and whose production meets certain social, ecological and economic criteria. The Fairtrade Mark enables smallholder cooperatives to achieve more stable prices and establish long-term trading partnerships. The standards also include criteria for democratic organizational structures, environmental protection and safe working conditions. Audits are carried out by FLOCERT at regular intervals.

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Certified Organic

We have had organic products in our product range since 2006 and have continuously increased their number since then. Our TEEKANNE organic products are marked with two organic logos: The EU Organic Logo guarantees that our raw materials come from controlled organic farming and that our products have been certified by a control body in accordance with the EU Regulations for Organic Farming .

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Projects at the Origin

Organic Raw Materials Procurement

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Green Tea
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