Sustainability and Voluntary Certification in the Kenyan Tea Sector

Voluntary Sustainability Certification (VSC) has grown rapidly in Kenya over the past decade, driven by significant buyer demand for Rainforest Alliance certification. This development has been coupled with rapid growth in participation in the Fair Trade and the former UTZ programs (now merged with Rainforest Alliance), a dynamic that has brought opportunities and challenges for the tea sector.

To address these issues, Kenya Tea Directorate, Sustainable Inclusive Business/KEPSA, and IISD, through the support of the Swedish International Development Agency, convened key representatives from all segments of the Kenyan tea value chain for a multistakeholder meeting held on March 6, 2019, in Nairobi, Kenya.

The meeting’s objective was to identify key challenges related to VSC and collectively define strategies to address them. It was designed as a workshop and also focused on the issue of developing credible data collection and sharing systems related to VSCs’ performance and how sharing such information efficiently can strengthen the entire sector.