Sorwarthé, one of Rwanda’s leading tea exporters is to get an ISO 22000 certification, Cally Alles, the director general of the tea company has announced.

The certification allows companies in the food industry to show that they are capable of providing consumers with safe products. And, the company has already applied for the certificate—inspection is set to begin any time.

"It has cost the company $8,000 (about Frw4.4M) for certificate application and inspection fee,” Alles said. The company may get the certificate by August.

When issued, Sorwathe is optimistic that their products market base will be increased while maintaining the existing one especially at the international level.

Currently, the company is the only largest American-privately controlled producer of tea in Rwanda that exports to Europe and Middle East.

Since 1975, the tea company has been a driving force in Rwanda’s tea business thus boosting the country’s economy.

If awarded, Sorwathe will be the only Rwandan tea factory with the ISO 22000 certificate alongside the Fair Trade certificate it got in May 2006 and the ISO 9001-2000 that was also won last year.

The ISO 9001-2000 certificate was won after the tea quality met international quality standards for export and import.

And the Fair trade certificate about the welfare of the workers came after joining the Fair Trade Labour organisation, an international body based in German.

ISO 22000

Faced with the risk of large-scale toxic infection, the latest food crises, the increased life span of products and the lengthening of the food chain, hypermarkets, supermarkets and certain countries have developed private sector schemesbased on the hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) method to guarantee the safety of their own-brand products.

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