HAMBURG, Germany – The Hamburg-based European association of the tea and herbal infusions industry, called “Tea & Herbal Infusions Europe (THIE)”, last week took up its work after holding the very first Executive Board meeting.
The main task of this association is to uniformly address the interests of the tea and herbal infusions industry on European level with a main view to food safety, technical and commercial issues. Alongside these issues improving consumer’s knowledge on both product groups and cultivating contacts with growing countries at origin are targets of THIE.
The plan to merge the two European associations, the European Tea Committee (ETC) and the European Herbal Infusions Association (EHIA), was given a clear green light on 22nd January, 2015 when the final decision was taken to found a new common European association for tea (Camellia sinensis) as well as herbal and fruit infusions.
The target of the new European association, Tea & Herbal Infusions Europe (THIE), is to combine forces and to speak with a joint powerful voice for the needs of both product groups, tea as well as herbal and fruit infusions within the EU.
The focus of activities is on food safety, product quality, technical and scientific aspects, consumer protection and health as well as legal and commercial issues.
Members are the national professional associations of the following European states: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain and United Kingdom as well as one associated member from Switzerland. Nick Revett from R. Twinings & Company Ltd., United Kingdom has become the first elected President of THIE
Further members of the Executive Board are Paola Mirra (Unilever, Italy), Dr Andrea D’Agostino (GB Foods, Italy), Dr Thomas Henn (TeeGschwendner GmbH, Germany), Dr Adolf Kler (Martin Bauer GmbH & Co. KG, Germany) and Dr. Monika Beutgen (WGA Hamburg e.V.) as Secretary General.
