Tagged: certification

Three Different Promises on a Rooibos Label, and Why Most Tins Carry None

Organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance are three different promises on a rooibos label, not one certification, and the industry's own count of who holds them is smaller than most drinkers would guess. Here is what each stamp verifies, and what really decides which farmers can afford to earn it.

The Rooibos Trade

How the red bush is priced without a public auction, where the crop actually goes, what its certification marks verify, how the name is legally protected, and how concentrated the buying side really is.

The Sustainability of Rooibos

Sustainability in rooibos is four subjects rather than one: the fynbos the crop is planted on, the wild plant that still grows unfarmed above it, the certification marks that each promise something different, and the question of who owns the land and who receives the money. This is the canonical account of all four, with the figures each of them rests on.