The Rainforest Alliance is aware of a recent story featured on an investigative program from the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC), which focused on critical social issues facing the Sri Lankan tea sector. The program – Foreign Correspondent – which aired on 4 March 2025, took an in-depth look at the plight of rural tea workers and the state of the tea industry in Sri Lanka.
We welcome such reports and acknowledge the importance of highlighting the deeply complex issues associated with tea production in Sri Lanka. We are deeply concerned by the allegations of violations of worker rights, child labor and access to sanitation on Rainforest Alliance Certified tea estates in Sri Lanka. Human rights are an integral part of our certification program, and our mission at large. We take this matter very seriously and will be conducting our own investigations, as is our usual process. These investigations will inform next steps and appropriate action, which could potentially include temporary suspension or, if necessary, the eventual cancellation of certificates.
The issues highlighted in the report go far beyond certification and are deeply entrenched in structural poverty at a country level. These challenges often include child labor, low wages, and difficult living conditions, which are exacerbated by broader issues such as the decreasing global demand for tea, oversupply, perpetually low prices, and continuing economic uncertainty.
Certification is not a silver bullet, but it is an integral part of the solution and plays a significant role in mitigating these challenges. Importantly, certification by itself cannot be a guarantee of sustainability. Rather, it sets an important baseline and provides companies with the tools to invest further in the environmental and social sustainability of their supply chains.
We are constantly evolving and strengthening our certification program in line with feedback from farmers and companies. Our recently launched revised standard is more robust, efficient and data driven, and includes increased reporting on human rights as a central focus of our standard.
Beyond certification, our work is to address the root causes of the issues in tea production, and this is an ongoing joint effort with producers, governments, companies, NGOs, and consumers. The systemic issues highlighted in this program should serve as a call to action for all actors in the global tea supply chain. We take our role in this context very seriously and as such we are committed to continue working with the entire sector to address these challenges in a collective and collaborative manner.