The company said the cartons bearing the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label will be available in July. The announcement comes just months after rival SIG Combibloc said it would begin selling FSC-labelled cartons in China from this month onwards.
Tetra Pak said today its cartons would be available in three formats - Tetra Fino Aseptic, Tetra Prisma Aseptic and Tetra Brik Aseptic. The packaging giant forecast that the number of its FSC carton sold in China would reach two billion by the end of this year and a staggering 14 billion by the end of 2011.
The Sweden-based company said it had sold a total of 2.3 billion FSC cartons across the globe in 2009 – after pioneering the concept with the introduction of the world’s first FSC-labelled liquid food cartons in the UK two years previously.
Forest management
Tetra Pak spokeswoman Linda Bernier told FoodProductionDaily.com the move in China represented a further step in its commitment to support responsible forest management and drive environmental performance. She added that while none of its paperboard for Chinese cartons was currently sourced domestically, the company was working to change that by supporting sustainable forestry management in the country. In the meantime, the company said it worked closely with its paperboard suppliers to ensure “all supply comes from known and acceptable sources”. Its eventual goal is to have all supply certified to the standard currently set by FSC, added the firm.
Global plan
In March, SIG Combibloc, another major producer of aseptic cartons, announced it would be the first to sell a range of FSC-cartons in China this month after securing a deal with Inner Mongolia Yili Group to sell three of its premium yoghurt drinks in the containers. The company said the products would be launched at the World Expo in Shanghai. SIG said the burgeoning significance of China’s economic influence meant the promotion of green issues was of paramount importance.
“With China’s fast-growing economy, its importance in respect to global environmental and climate protection also rises,” said Karl Eagle, CEO of SIG Combibloc Asia-Pacific. “The launch of beverage cartons carrying the FSC label will make consumers and other companies and industries more aware of where the packaging comes from. Responsible forest management has an important role to play here."
Tetra Pak said it welcomed the move by its rival and that it had launched its own FSC-label carton in the country as part of a “global deployment plan” for the materials.
“As part of the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) Tetra Pak, SIG Combibloc and Elopak committed to achieving verified traceability through a 100 per cent chain-of-custody certification of all wood fibre used in beverage carton manufacture by 2015, thus helping to prevent the use of wood from unacceptable sources and to reach 100% traceability certification of their packaging material plants by 2018,” said Bernier.