Between 2017-2021, the ALDI SOUTH Group, together with ALDI Nord, supported a smallholder project in Côte d'Ivoire in order to pave the way for sustainable cultivation of palm in the area. In close cooperation with our partner Solidaridad, we developed a project that focused on improving smallholder farmers’ knowledge on Best Environmental Practices and on agriculture that respects High Conservation Values (HCV) and natural forests.

Solidaridad offered training through Farmer Field Schools (FFS) for 2,611 palm oil smallholder farmers and helped restore approximately 250 hectares of forest land in the project area. The team cultivated 17,532 tree seedlings in nurseries that were then distributed to individual farmers, planted in schools and borders of sacred forests, and used to help restore natural reserve areas.

Various partners and stakeholders were involved in the project, including the Inter-professional Association of Oil-Palm Industry (AIPH). This institution has fully endorsed the project’s outcomes and is now installing tree nurseries in other palm oil-growing regions. Additionally the cooperatives engaged are were COOPALEN, UCCOPES, COOPTOSA from the Sud Comoe region, UCOOPALM from the Grand Ponts region, USCOPAHLD from Loh Djiboua and U3SC from San Pedro.

Despite the many challenges facing the project, including COVID-19 restrictions, and political tensions, 90% of the community participants, including community leaders and the youth, reported positive outcomes of the project in the area and increased knowledge from the trainings. 

© Solidaridad

We are founding member of the Palm Oil Transparency Coalition (POTC). POTC is a group of businesses working together in a pre-competitive coalition to remove deforestation and exploitation from the palm oil sector. We engage and review the major international importers of palm oil to determine their progress towards tackling deforestation and exploitation in their palm oil supply chains. Our approach aims to promote transparency and encourage progress beyond certification.

The ALDI SOUTH Group has been a member of the Retailers' Palm Oil Group (RPOG) since 2012. RPOG is a non-competitive coalition of retailers who have the common aim of making the use of sustainable palm oil the norm across all relevant supply chains.

In 2011, the ALDI SOUTH Group became a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a not-for-profit organisation that unites stakeholders from the palm oil industry to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil. The RSPO has more than 4,800 members worldwide who represent all links along the palm oil supply chain. They have committed to produce, source and/or use sustainable palm oil certified by the RSPO.

Working together

Since 2019, the ALDI SOUTH Group is the only retail representative of the RSPO Smallholder Standing Committee (SHSC). The SHSC’s responsibilities include overseeing the execution of the RSPO Smallholder Strategy and decision making throughout the implementation of the RSPO Smallholder Strategy.

In 2020, the ALDI SOUTH Group signed the Statement of Support (SoS) for the Cerrado Manifesto.  We are working in the SoS Group together with other companies to engage local and international stakeholders to protect the native vegetation in the Cerrado, Brazil.

The Brazilian Cerrado is the world’s most biodiverse savannah and after the Amazon rainforest it is the second largest biome in South America. Protection is urgently necessary, as rates of deforestation and land conversion in the Cerrado are even higher than in the Amazon: The Cerrado region has already lost 50% of its original area mainly due to soy production and cattle ranching. 

Since 2018, we participate in the Collective Soy Reporting together with a group of other retailers to:

• quantify the amount of soymeal present in animal feed used in 2018;
• identify where the soy was produced; and
• determine whether any of the soymeal carried a recognised deforestation free production certification

Overall, more than 230 livestock producers, packers, and manufacturing suppliers fed into the report. Based on the results, we engage with relevant stakeholders and develop appropriate measures to increase the share of deforestation-free soy in our supply chain.

After founding member HOFER Austria, now the entire ALDI SOUTH Group became a member of Donau Soja. This is another step in our international approach to work with other ambitious stakeholders on industry-wide solutions for sustainable and deforestation-free soy production.

Donau Soja is a non-profit association with the aim of supporting the sustainable development of European agriculture and increasing European soy cultivation. This includes the cultivation of soy in line with EU agricultural regulations, additional sustainability criteria and the support of research and innovation activities in the field of European soy production. Donau Soja developed two certification schemes called Donau Soja (especially for the Danube region) and Europe Soya. Both standards ensure sustainably grown, regional and GM-free soy.

The ALDI SOUTH Group joined the Retail Soy Group (RSG) in 2017. The RSG is an independent group of international retailers collaborating pre-competitively to find industry-wide solutions for sustainable soy for their animal feed and food supply chains.

The ALDI SOUTH Group became a member of the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) in 2017. The RTRS is a global platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue to promote responsible production, processing and trading of soy on a global level. Its mission is to encourage soybean production to be verified by a certification standard and produced in a responsible manner. Its objective is to reduce the social and environmental impacts of soy while maintaining or improving the economic status for the producer.

We are a founding member of the Soy Transparency Coalition (STC), which was established in 2020. The STC is a pre-competitive coalition whose aim is to help deliver a sustainable soy production system. The STC does this by engaging with major international soy traders on tackling deforestation and transparency challenges in soy supply chains.

From 2019-2020, ALDI SOUTH Germany and HOFER S/E worked with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Namibia. The aim of the project was to increase the amount of sustainable and directly traded charcoal on the market, which benefits local farmers directly. After the successfully conclusion of trainings and audits, the farmers are certified according to the FSC Forest Management Standard.  

In September 2019, the ALDI SOUTH Group joined the newly formed Retailer Cocoa Collaboration (RCC), which commits to support the Cocoa and Forests Initiative. This initiative will drive change by protecting and restoring forests in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Colombia. The RCC will also map collective cocoa supply chains to gain a greater understanding of the social and environmental risks found in production countries. The trader assessment conducted by RCC will also provide us with greater transparency and insight into lower supply chain tiers.

As the first discount retailer, ALDI has joined Tony’s Open Chain. Tony’s Open Chain is an initiative by Tony’s Chocolonely, where they invite other chocolate brands to join Tony’s Open Chain and work together to change the norm in chocolate. By adopting the 5 Sourcing Principles for our new chocolate bar, ALDI has joined the mission to make chocolate 100% slave-free.

ALDI has been an active member of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO) since 2015 and works with other members to achieve the initiative’s objectives. This multi-stakeholder initiative aims to improve the livelihood of cocoa farmers and their families, to contribute to a secure living, to conserve and protect natural resources and biodiversity in cocoa producing countries, as well as to increase cultivation and commercialisation of sustainably produced cocoa.

Working together

ALDI is actively engaged in the sustainability and PRO-PLANTEURS working groups, which focus on the implementation of GISCO’s goals and monitoring the PRO-PLANTEURS project.

By establishing the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa in 2018, ALDI SUISSE became a member of the association for the promotion of sustainable cocoa (“Verein zur Förderung von nachhaltigem Kakao”). The members of the multi-stakeholder initiative with actors from the Swiss cocoa and chocolate industry, the public sector, civil society and research institutions actively work together to improve the living conditions of cocoa farmers, to protect natural resources and to promote biodiversity in the cocoa-producing countries. They are committed to coordinate a dialogue with authorities and organizations in producer countries, and to promote the demand and procurement of cocoa-based products with sustainable origins.

In 2020, the ALDI SOUTH Group became a member of the Sustainable Coffee Challenge (SCC). In the SCC, we collaborate with other retailers, traders, governments, NGOs, and research institutions on improving living and working conditions in the global coffee sector.

The World Banana Forum (WBF), coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, promotes the worldwide adoption of best practices for sustainable banana production and trade. They provide a space where retailers, importers, producers, exporters, consumer associations, governments, research institutions, trade unions, and civil society organizations can discuss the problems facing the banana sector and seek solutions. The ALDI SOUTH Group became a member in 2017.