Our tea estates

Our tea estates at Kericho and Limuru cover a combined area of 14,396 hectares. That’s big enough to fit in Wembley Stadium’s famous soccer pitch about 20,000 times. Around 382 hectares is completely organic, making it one of the largest organic tea estates in the world.

But not everything’s devoted to tea. Around 40% of our land is either under conservation; planted with gum trees; or providing vital infrastructure like houses and roads.

We recognize what a privilege it is to have so much nature under our stewardship. And we understand that with this privilege comes responsibility.

Since joining the Kenyan community, we’ve built 50 early childhood development centres, 20 primary schools, and five secondary schools. We’ve also founded six daycare centres, five medical centres, fifteen dispensaries, and one central hospital. And we’ve constructed 12,000 houses for our workers and their families.

These facilities are open to neighboring communities, too. In fact, two-thirds of children in the primary schools we have founded come from communities beyond our tea estates.

We have clear policies in place for maintaining high standards: everyone connected to our tea estates needs to follow them.

They’re central to achieving our strategy, which is about becoming a truly sustainable tea plantation, able to grow delicious teas and improve livelihoods both now and in future.

Here’s a rundown of some of our policies:

• Our Code of Business Principles commits us to running our tea estates with honesty, integrity and openness. If there are ever any concerns, we’ll always investigate and respond professionally, safely and fairly.

• We take a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination, including sexual harassment. This approach is embedded our Code of Business Principles, our Responsible Sourcing Policy and our Responsible Business Partner Policy too.

• Through our Occupational Health and Safety & Environmental policies, we set out our commitment to providing safe, healthy working conditions, while meeting the needs of our customers in an environmentally sustainable way. We’ll never allow any form of forced, compulsory or child labour.

• Our SHE Framework Standards on Environmental Care and Occupational Health & Safety set out how we manage these areas throughout ekaterra. They mirror ISO 14001 (for environmental management systems) and OHSAS 18001 (for occupational health).

• We carry out annual risk assessments of working conditions and health and safety. Through these, we look in detail at task-specific risks, how equipment is used, and overall workplace ergonomics. Where risks are identified, colleagues’ wellbeing is monitored carefully, with mandatory occupational medical check-ups each year.