We want to provide our customers the highest quality at the best possible price. To do this, we use systems with proven reliability and suitability for market-wide implementation. The use of independent certification schemes when buying fish is one example. By using these certifications, we can ensure that products in our fish and seafood range are sourced in an environmentally friendly and social manner.

Our criteria for the responsible sourcing of fish:

1. Certification in accordance with one of our recognised standards (Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Organic, GlobalG.A.P., Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) and further by Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) recognised standards)
2. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) or Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) rating, shows a low or medium risk
3. The raw material originates from a fishery participating in a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP), registered on fisheryprogress.org, or Aquaculture Improvement Project (AIP), with proven progress.

Additional criteria for tuna: the business partner is a member of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) or the fishing vessel is registered within the Proactive Vessel Register (PVR).

All fish and seafood products that are not certified undergo a risk assessment to make sure the products do not have a high risk for overfishing or negative impacts on the ecosystem. For this we work together with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and the WWF.

When we source a product, the risk assessment is conducted before the buying decision is taken. Once a year, our entire fish and seafood product range is assessed by our partnerships, for any products that might have developed a high risk for overfishing. We will either replace it with a more sustainable alternative or define concrete improvement measures together with our business partners.

Our business partners need to guarantee complete traceability of all fish and seafood products supplied to ALDI. Among other things, business partners are contractually obliged to provide information on the entire value chain of the relevant product, e.g. on catchment area, fishing methods, fishery improvement project (FIP) or aquaculture improvement project (AIP) participation and other information to support responsible sourcing and continuous improvement.

In order to offer their customers a higher transparency for fish and seafood products, ALDI SOUTH Germany and HOFER have established traceability platforms. With the help of a QR code or a tracking code on the packaging, the respective product can be traced back to its origin. In the case of fish, for example, the customer finds out where the purchased fish was caught and processed.

ALDI SOUTH Germany: Traceability platform	HOFER: Check your product

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.

In 2018, we comprehensively examined the human rights risks within our food and agriculture supply chains. The aim of these assessments is to identify any adverse impacts our company may have on human rights, gain insights into our actual impacts and understand where our greatest level of influence is throughout the global supply chains of the entire ALDI SOUTH Group.

We identified fish and seafood as a raw material as well as on production facility level with a high risk of human rights violations and consider it to be very important to us in terms of leverage.