The paperboard carton supplier has announced that, this year, it is aiming to supply Swedish and Danish customers with around 600 million and 270 million FSC-labelled packages respectively.
And Tetra Pak said it is also set to supply FSC-labelled packages totalling 700 million to the Belgian retailer Colruyt.
Meanwhile, Italian farmers’ cooperative Valfrutta has also signed a deal with the carton supplier to pack its smoothies and nectars in FSC-labelled Tetra Brik Aseptic packages in a variety of sizes.
A spokesperson for Tetra Pak told BeverageDaily.com today that it sources the FSC material mainly from suppliers in Sweden and Finland.
The company said that it supplies FSC certified packaging in a range of markets since its first brought FSC-labelled liquid food cartons to the market in 2007 with their launch in the UK. It has since released the sustainably sourced cartons in markets including Germany, Austria, China, Thailand, Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands and, most recently, Spain.
According to the spokesperson, a particular market’s readiness for FSC labelled packages depends on a number of critical factors including high awareness of the sustainability label and the cooperation of that country’s leading beverage and dairy companies.
The FSC standard guarantees that the wood fibres in the package are traceable all the way through the supply chain and that the paperboard used in the package comes from FSC-certified forests and other controlled sources.
However, only 5 per cent of the global forest stocks are FSC-certified, and Tetra Pak said it is in the process of boosting supply in various countries through supporting NGOs such as the WWF to further promote FSC among small forest holders in China, France, the US, Hungary and South Africa.
“This is not a quick fix problem. FSC is not just about replacing trees but about ensuring a sustainable habitat for wildlife.
We are looking at a long term programme of collaboration with forest keepers and holders to enable greater availability of FSC certified board in all the markets we operate in,” said the spokesperson.
She said that, to date, about 60 per cent of Tetra Pak's 36 packaging material production plants have achieved chain-of-custody (COC) certification from the FSC Council including all of its European factories.
Outside of Europe, added the spokesperson, eight Tetra Pak packaging material plants have been certified, including those in Brazil, China and Singapore, with the supplier’s goal being 100 per cent production plant FSC COC certification by 2018.