World’s first certified organic tea factory opens

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.