Credible certification schemes like GLOBALG.A.P. are important tools to drive improvements and bolster our consumers’ trust. GLOBALG.A.P. sets standards for good agricultural and aquaculture practices (G.A.P.) and in May 2020, we followed the invitation to join the Aquaculture Technical Committee, which will enable us to promote improvements through a well-established dialogue with all relevant industry stakeholders.

In 2020, the ALDI SOUTH Group proudly joined the ‘Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability’ (GDST). This is another important step towards improving traceability throughout the fish and seafood supply chain and to fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The GDST is an international, business-to-business platform established to advance a unified framework for seafood traceability practices. The initiative brings together a broad spectrum of seafood industry stakeholders from across different parts of the seafood supply chain and  civil society experts.

ALDI’s goal is to source all of its seafood products from responsibly managed fisheries and farms, which have a minimal impact upon the wider marine environment. We believe the best way to protect the people and the planet is through joint initiatives and partnerships, like the GDST. We are committed to implement the ‘GDST 1.0 Standards and Guidelines for Interoperable Seafood Traceability Systems’ in our company and will work together with our suppliers for the implementation of the standard in our supply chain.

In May 2021, the ALDI SOUTH and ALDI Nord Groups have become partners of the Global Tuna Alliance (GTA). This partnership will support the sustainable development of our supply chains and ensures that the tuna ultimately meets the highest standards of environmental performance and social responsibility.

The Global Tuna Alliance is an independent group of retailers and tuna supply chain companies, who are committed to

• realising harvest strategies for tuna fisheries,
• avoiding Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated product,
• improving traceability as well as environmental sustainability
• progressing work on human rights in tuna fisheries,
• implementing the objectives laid out in World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration.

As responsibly acting retailers, the ALDI SOUTH Group and the ALDI Nord Group of companies has set the goal to source 100% of ALDI-exclusive brand seafood products from responsibly managed fisheries and farms. We are concerned by the suspension of the MSC certification from North East Atlantic mackerel and Atlanto-scandian herring fisheries from Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Area 27. We believe the management of these fisheries shows gaps, including a lack of a binding allocation of catch quotas for both fish species in line with scientific advice between all catch nations. It is important that the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) coastal states adhere to scientifically advised catch levels and implement a long-term science-based management plan for mackerel and herring.

We have joined the North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group (NAPA) to advocate for effective international agreement. NAPA aims to drive sustainability in these fisheries by generating momentum towards an agreement on total allowable catches in line with scientific advice, as well as long-term science-based fisheries management strategies. To address these issues they established the Northeast Atlantic Ocean mackerel and herring - hook & line, trawl, and purse seine fisheries improvement project (FIP). We are participating in the FIP and will continue to source North East Atlantic mackerel while progress is being made.  In the event that the NAPA FIP fails to achieve the desired outcome, ALDI will work with its suppliers to review sourcing options, including investigating alternative sourcing areas and species. We also call upon our business partners to support our efforts by joining NAPA and by engaging their business partners and networks where this has not happened yet.

ALDI UK/IE, ALDI Australia and ALDI US joined the Ocean Disclosure Project (ODP) to voluntarily disclose sourcing information on their wild caught seafood products. The ODP is a global platform and reporting framework dedicated to increasing transparency in global seafood supply chains. These ALDI countries will disclose a list of all the fisheries, catch method and environmental impact of its wild caught seafood.

Since 2017, the ALDI SOUTH Group is a member of the Seafood Task Force, a multi-stakeholder initiative seeking to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in an effort to address human rights issues and marine conservational problems, which are believed to be closely interlinked.

The Seafood Task Force uses the combined knowledge and experience of its membership to address complex supply chain issues that cannot be solved individually. The aim is to achieve clean seafood supply chains from vessel to retailer through driving oversight and continuous improvement across people, product, process, and policy.

Since 2012, we have worked in collaboration with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), a leading non-governmental organisation.  Their focus is to improve the sustainability of wild fisheries as well as aquaculture. The SFP acts as our independent adviser on fish sustainability and rates the sustainability of the fish and seafood used in our own label products and provide recommendations to drive continuous improvement of fisheries. Through our partnership, we can gain better insight into how to source more sustainable seafood products.

Since 2010, we are collaborating with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the field of sustainable fishing and aquaculture farming. The WWF acts as an independent adviser on fish sustainability and rates the sustainability of the fish and seafood used in our private label products. The WWF also provides us with recommendations to drive continuous improvement of fisheries and aquacultures.

The project aims to sustainably improve fishery management in order to ensure fishing practices, which comply with the MSC criteria in the long term. In 2014, the ALDI SOUTH Group initiated this project concerning the active improvement of the sustainability of sardine fishing in Morocco.

ALDI is partnering with the non-profit organization Issara Institute to provide support to both workers and businesses in our supply chain. We will be working together to provide access to grievance mechanisms and remediation actions in ALDI’s Thai food supply chains. The partnership will strengthen current processes and empower workers to speak up if they have concerns about their working environment.

It also helps ALDI to generate learnings on addressing potential barriers in accessing grievance mechanisms and remedy that different categories of workers are facing. For example, Issara supports gender-specific mechanisms by having trained male and female helpline operators and ensuring worker confidentiality and safety in reporting all issues such as harassment.   Potential barriers are being addressed through remediating worker raised issues in collaboration with their employer and support of ALDI and its suppliers, for instance through building capacity to look into grievances, talking safely with workers or through other specific training by Issara Institute.

© Issara Institute