Environmental Responsibility

We want to encourage our Indian partners to use less chemicals and to develop an alternative organic agriculture. To achieve this aim, regular educational programmes bring together organic agriculture experts from Europe and India with the Indian plantation management. The guaranteed market for their teas also encourages the continuing use of organic methods. Our gardens (Seeyok, Selimbong, Banaspaty) are all in the process of converting to organic agriculture. You will find a chemical residue analysis of the particular tea crop inside your pack. The elimination of chemicals from the tea gardens will be archieved as quickly as possible, so that the term `Top Quality` is justified.

See also report "The Future for Darjeeling"

Organic Tea Cultivation

Organic Tea Farming asks for the maximum consideration of ecological aspects in combination with the development of a suitable agro system for the Tea Gardens. It professes significant restrictions in the application of fertilisers and pesticides to support eco-friendly production. It aims to turn a tea garden into a self sustainable organism using recycling of biological products, composting, intercropping, cultivation of leguminous plants, vermiculture, improving ecological diversity to control pests and diseases and other such activities. All our tea gardens have adopted Organic Tea farming practices. Certification and Inspection All our tea gardens are accredited with the internationally reputed Naturland Association, who are a full member of the International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and also member of foundation of the German umbrella organisation AGOL (Association of Organic Agriculture in Germany). The Naturland standards compare with the standards of IF0AM and AGOL as well as to the European regulations no. 2092/91/EEC. Inspection of our gardens is done by Institut for Marketecologie (IMO) which has its head quarters in Switzerland and branch offices in other continents. They are the leading inspectors of organic tea with worldwide activities in quality control of all kinds of organic products.

Residue Analysis

A= akaracide; Av = avicide; F = fungicide; H = herbicide; I = insekticide; M = molluskicide; Met = metabolite; N = nematicide
* "under..." = technical limits of lab-machining

Name	admissable limit	usage	finding
chlorine pestcides
total HCH (no lindane)  lindanes tetradifon  hexachlorobenzene(HCB)  heptaclor/  chlordane  endosulfan  mirex  aldrine + dieldrine  endrine  DDE-,DDD-,DDT-isomeres	00,20 mg/kg  00,50 mg/kg  00,10 mg/kg  00,10 mg/kg  00,01 mg/kg  00,05 mg/kg  30,00 mg/kg,  00,10 mg/kg  00,10 mg/kg  00,10 mg/kg  01,00 mg/kg	I  I A  F  I I I  I  I  I  I+Met	under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,002 mg/kg  under* 0,010 mg/kg  under* 0,001 mg/kg  under* 0,001 mg/kg  under* 0,001 mg/kg  under*0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,001 mg/kg  under*0,001 mg/kg  under* 0,001 mg/kg  under* 0,001 mg/kg
phosphorous pestcides
naled  phoxim  dichlorphos  malathion  parathion-metyl  paraoxonmethyl  fenchlorphos  profenophos	00,20 mg/kg  00,10 mg/kg  02,00 mg/kg  08,00 mg/kg  01,00 mg/kg  01,00 mg/kg  00,10 mg/kg  00,01 mg/kg	I  I  I  A+I  I  I I I	under* 0,010 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005mg//kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg
nitrogenous pestcide
amitraz  captan  dinobuton  imazalil  metalasyl  propyzamid  sulfallat  triadimenol	00,20 mg/kg  00,01 mg/kg  00,01 mg/kg  05,00 mg/kg  10,00 mg/kg  01,00 mg/kg  01,00 mg/kg  15,00 mg/kg	I  F  A  F  F  H  H  F	under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,010 mg/kg  under* 0,010 mg/kg  under* 0,010 mg/kg  under* 0,020 mg/kg  under* 0,020 mg/kg  under* 0,010 mg/kg  under* 0,010 mg/kg
sulphur pesticide
carbophenothion  dioxathion  ethion  fensulfothion  fenthion  fonofos  malathion  sulfotep	02,00 mg/kg  10,00 mg/kg  02,00 mg/kg  00,10 mg/kg  00,05 mg/kg  00,01 mg/kg  08,00 mg/kg  00,50 mg/kg	I  I  A  I+N  I  I  A+I  I	under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg  under* 0,005 mg/kg