Over the past year, ETP has worked closely with our members and Open Supply Hub (OSH) to take a major step forward in tea supply chain transparency. Building on previous reporting, we’ve co-created a practical, standardised way to share sourcing information.
The result:
Our new interactive supply chain map. This map offers a credible, impactful way to show where our members tea comes from, meeting growing transparency requirements from customers, investors, and regulators, and enabling more effective collaboration across the sector.
How we got here:
In 2024, we piloted our new sourcing template with six member companies, ensuring it was both practical and tailored as much as possible to members’ needs. The pilot’s success means the template is now part of our updated membership requirements, making transparency a core element of what it means to be an ETP member.
Why this matters:
Transparency is now a business essential. Customers, investors, and regulators expect clear, credible information about where and how products are made. Through OSH’s open data platform, we are helping members:
- Show sourcing locations with confidence – using a consistent, comparable format.
- Bring supply chains to life – with the interactive map that makes it easy to share and explore sourcing data.
- Collaborate more effectively – strengthening relationships with suppliers, buyers, and other key stakeholders.
- Support continuous improvement – public visibility of sourcing sites helps stakeholders, including NGOs and rights groups, to better understand conditions and work collaboratively to address challenges.
The new map, powered by anonymised, aggregated sourcing data from across our membership, provides the most complete picture yet of where ETP members source their tea. It replaces the old dashboard, which covered only a small subset of members, and now allows users to explore sourcing sites for the wider membership.
It’s easy to navigate, filterable by country, facility name, and parent company, and highlights sourcing concentrations based on the number of facilities. This makes it a valuable tool for helping spot potential risks, identifying opportunities, and addressing impacts in supply chains collaboratively. For instance, if the map shows many estates in a region are facing climate impacts, stakeholders can work together on initiatives to improve climate resilience and adaptation.
What’s next:
This achievement is a testament to ETP members’ shared commitment to transparency and ethical trade. While this milestone focuses on aggregate-level disclosure, ETP is dedicated to consistently supporting members in individually disclosing their supply chains.
We’re encouraging members to support producer companies in creating their own profiles and claiming their production locations on the OSH platform. Taking these steps will help enhance transparency, build trust with stakeholders, and set a new standard for ethical sourcing in the global tea sector.
We will be hosting a webinar to guide members through the map, OSH tools, and next steps. To register interest or ask questions, please email members@etp-global.org.
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