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World s first certified organic tea factory opens in Sri Lanka
Friday, 10 October 2008 - 11:41 AM SL Time
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The world s first certified organic tea estate and factory will be opened at Haldumulla today.
It was a British company that originally planted tea in 1875 at Needwood Group which was converted to Organic bio cultivation by the famed Denzil Soza, the global pioneer in bio farming in 1985 the state was later purchased by Soza in 1968 under the name of Needwood Emmag Limited, formed for this purpose.
The Needwood Organic tea project is the pioneer in organically grown tea farming both in the world and in Sri Lanka and the first estate that received international certification from inspectors as a project confirming to the organic agricultural disciplines laid down by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) based in Germany.
Needwood estate first received such certification in 1986. Today, it continues to be certified (through annual inspections) by the famed International certifying bodies NASAA (Level A) until 2007, IMO-JAS EU and USDA and Fair Label Organisation (FLO) with accreditation to the IFOAM of Germany. Needwood Teas thus have organic authorisation into Australia, Japan, Europe Scandinavia and the USA. Needwood is also a fair-trade certified company.
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Revy
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 14212
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 10 Oct 2008 13:51:11 GMT Report for Abuse
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| Aren't basically all tea plantations organic, what defines whether one is 'organic' or not. Seems like a lot of hot air to me. I can understand in some other crops, but the tea shrub as far as I understand is the same shrub for decades so do they use fertilizer etc on it? |
PolBanda
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 669
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 10 Oct 2008 15:08:19 GMT Report for Abuse
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Revy,
The difference between organic and not is whether you put any synthetic fertilizer like urea. This basic is applicable for all other organic crops as well.
For tea, it needs fertilizer and tea yield (flush/shoots) production heavily depend on it. Usually organic tea fields are low yield, due to zero application of inorganic fertilizer. |
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10 Oct 2008 10:48:28 GMT