The Rainforest Alliance and UTZ have announced they merge and become the new Rainforest Alliance later this year. As the organizations certify some 182,000 cocoa, coffee, and tea farmers around the world, this move will get rid of the administrative workload of having to adhere to two sets of standards and certification systems. “The new standard will give them better guidance and one system to comply with; it saves them a lot of costs and efforts,” Han de Groot, CEO of the new organization, said.
The new single standard for their unified certification program is set to be released by early 2019, and the new Rainforest Alliance will also create a single auditing process for certificate holders.
“To achieve sustainability, even greater impact and assurance is required, therefore we have high expectations that this merger will result in a positive transformation of farmer livelihoods and land use practices on a greater scale, which is urgently needed,” Pascal Baltussen, a vice president at Mars Chocolate, chimed in as a representative of one of the large players in the industry.
Eco-BusinessWhy not share this article?
