Tea
Starbucks is committed to improving the overall sustainability and transparency of our tea supply chain. We are focused on improving the livelihoods of tea workers, smallholder farmers and their communities, and the environment in which tea is produced. Starbucks sources tea from third-party certified farms. In FY20, 99.7% was sourced from Rainforest Alliance certified farms.
We continue to evolve and improve our ethical sourcing standard by working closely with local and international organizations including NGOs, government organizations and certifiers. In a proactive effort to collaborate and strengthen collective industry-wide action, we are members of the Ethical Tea Partnership and The Tea Association of the USA.
Supporting Tea Communities
The Starbucks Foundation has a goal to empower 250,000 women and girls in coffee- and tea- growing communities by 2025. To help achieve this goal, we have awarded Origin Grants to organizations supporting programs in tea communities that provide women’s economic opportunities and leadership, break down barriers to education, and promote healthy homes, clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Such organizations include Barefoot College International, UNICEF ETP, The Roger Federer Foundation and CARE International. From 2003-2018, The Starbucks Foundation also supported the Mercy Corps’ Community Health and Advancement Initiative (CHAI) Project to provide youth vocational training, health services and water access improvements to more than 100,000 people from 39 rural communities in the Darjeeling and Assam regions in India and in Guatemalan cardamom-growing villages.