Sourcing Botanicals

Sourcing botanicals for herbal teas is a complicated process. Most herbal teas are a blend of different ingredients, typically from small-scale producers, including as many as 300 different ingredients in herbal teas, originating in more than 100 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Challenges to sourcing include threats to biodiversity, overuse of pesticides, minimal quality control, and over-harvesting of wild botanical species.

In this webinar, co-hosted with the UEBT (Union for Ethical BioTrade), the speakers discuss some of the challenges in sourcing herbal tea ingredients with respect to social equity and biodiversity.

Sustainable Herbs Program Director Ann Armbrecht spoke with Gocha Dzneladze, COO of GeoFlower, Georgia, which provides FairWild certified licorice, among other products, to the global market, Diana Bartolić Director for quality, purchase and general affairs for the Spider Group, a producing company in Croatia that provides UEBT certified chamomile and other ingredients, and Rik Kutsch Lojenga, Executive Director of UEBT.

Video Selects

Below are a selection of video clips from the webinar. The complete recording is at the bottom of the post.

Our new SHP intern, Lillian Lu, a landscape designer and a student at ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism, produced these clips.
Rik Kutsch Lojenga, Executive Director of UEBT, speaks about the unique challenges of sourcing botanicals for tea.

Diana Bartolić, Director for quality, purchase and general affairs for the Spider Group, introduces the values that guides her family company.

Gocha Dzneladze, COO of GeoFlower, Georgia, which provides FairWild certified licorice, among other products, to the global market, speaks about the importance of fair prices.

In this clip, Diana Bartolić discusses how her company addresses biodiversity loss.

And here is the recording of the complete webinar: