KOCHI: The tea estates of Harrisons Malayalam Limited in Kerala - five in Wayanad and one in the Nilgiri-Wayanad area - and the company’s five factories have been certified for Sustainable Agricultural Network/ Rain Forest Alliance (SAN/RA) by the IMO Control, Bangalore. The SAN/RA certification system is jointly owned by the Sustainable Agriculture Network and Rainforest Alliance. Farms that meet the SAN requirements and adhere to its rules are recognised with the ‘Rainforest Alliance Certified’ seal. The standards set by the SAN comply with the Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards of the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling (ISEAL) Alliance. Based on this, IMO Control, Bangalore, granted Rainforest Alliance Certification to the tea and pepper produced of the HML Wayanad gardens. “The initiative to certify all the estates for sustainable practices is part of the management’s commitment to preserving the Western Ghats,” said HML president C Vinayaraghavan, adding that the management had taken steps to make HML estates plastic free zones.