UTZ Certified
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| Non-profit organization | |
| Industry | Product certification, Sustainability |
| Founded | Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2002) |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
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Key people
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Han de Groot, Executive Director |
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Number of employees
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100 (2014) |
| Website | www |
UTZ Certified is a program and a label for sustainable farming. The UTZ Certified label is featured on more than 10,000 different product packages in over 116 countries. As of 2014, UTZ Certified is the largest program for sustainable farming of coffee and cocoa in the world. The UTZ Certified program covers good agricultural practices, farm management and the environment.
UTZ was launched in 2002 as Utz Kapeh, meaning ‘Good Coffee’ in the Mayan language Quiché. It was founded by Nick Bocklandt, a Belgian-Guatemalan coffee grower, and Ward de Groote, a Dutch coffee roaster, with the goal of implementing sustainability on a large scale in the worldwide market. Solidaridad (www.solidaridadnetwork.org) was another co-initiator of UTZ Certified and assisted UTZ to become a global standard through financial support and field implementation.
On 7 March 2007, the Utz Kapeh Foundation officially changed its name and logo to UTZ Certified.
UTZ Certified is the largest sustainability program in the world for coffee. In 2012, 9% of the coffee produced in the world was UTZ certified (716,000 MT(Metric Ton = 1000 kg), out of global production of 8,200,000 MT).
On 10 October 2007, the Cocoa Program was launched. UTZ Certified cooperated with Ahold, Cargill, Heinz Benelux, Mars, Nestlé and ECOM to set up a new certification and traceability system for sustainable cocoa. Solidaridad and Oxfam Novib also supported the initiative from the beginning. In 2009 the first UTZ Certified cocoa products reached the market. As of 2014, UTZ Certified is the largest sustainability program for cocoa in the world. By now, over 336,300 cocoa farmers from 16 countries are UTZ Certified. In 2012, 13% of the cocoa produced in the world was UTZ Certified (535,000 MT, out of global production of 2,889,000MT).
The UTZ Certified program for tea and rooibos was launched in 2007.
UTZ Certified is currently running a pilot project in Turkey to explore the possibilities for sustainability.
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Wikipedia