With increasing resource prices, serious seafood stock concerns, and local suppliers threatened by economic conditions, security of supply is a vital area of action. We’re taking immediate, practical steps to source better today, and into the long term. We’ve made good progress on social compliance with the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI). We’re sourcing more sustainable seafood and local products than ever before.
We’re not doing all this alone. By working together through partnerships with NGOs and platforms like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), we’re moving forward faster than we would on our own. With these organizations, we’ll be doing more work on biodiversity and deforestation in 2011. Click here to learn more about our partnerships.
What are we doing about responsible sourcing?
Social compliance
Since we joined the BSCI in 2009, we focused on educating our buyers and suppliers on the Vendor Code of Conduct.
We communicated the code to 95% of our private brand suppliers for review and endorsement. We have experienced issues with some of these suppliers and expect the code to become actionable in 2012.
The remaining 5% suppliers are Mega Image and Super Indo suppliers, and cannot be included at this stage due to the respective local legislative environments. We have a plan to assess these suppliers and compliance with the code in 2011.
Sustainable seafood
We want all the seafood we source to be sustainable. Together with our partners we’ll be setting specific strategies for each operating company in 2011. We have already made great progress with Delhaize Belgium and Delhaize America, who are responsible for 90% of our revenues:
- Delhaize Belgium developed a sourcing policy for sustainable fresh fish in partnership with WWF and Stichting De Noordzee. To help customers make better choices, we created a fish buying guide and have adjusted sourcing practices to purchase less from “red list” fisheries. Click here to see the guide. The goal is to have 100% of our seafood sustainably sourced by the end of 2012.
- Delhaize America, with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), created a comprehensive sustainable seafood policy, mapped private and national brand suppliers and developed a traceability system for all seafood - fresh, frozen, and canned. The policy, fully enforced as of March 2011, will ensure 100% of seafood in our U.S. stores will be sustainably sourced by the second quarter of 2012.
Sustainable Palm Oil
Delhaize Group joined the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) a multi-stakeholder platform that coordinates the certification of palm oil plantations, in October 2010.
The use of sustainable palm oil in our private brand products started in 2010, and we aim to use only sustainable palm oil by 2015. Our long term aim is to use certified sustainable palm oil. We will work closely with our private brand suppliers to ensure this is achieved as certified sustainable palm oil becomes more readily available in the markets where we operate (In Indonesia, this will be in alignment with the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil Foundation). In the meantime, we accept all the supply chain approaches as recognized by the RSPO, including Book and Claim, in the instances where the use of segregated palm oil is not available.
Updated September 2011
More sustainable products
The Group has both stocked and sold more responsible products.
Organic
Group sales have increased slightly in 2010 leading to a ratio of 1.8% of food sales derived from organic products.
Fair-trade
In 2010 we added 39 more fair-trade products to our shelves across the Group. We now sell approximately 200 different fair-trade products worldwide.
Eco-products
A number of our operating companies are developing environmentally-friendly product lines. In Belgium, the range consists of 25 products, which are at least 15% less expensive than equivalent national brands. Since 2009, we’ve seen a 40% increase in sales of Eco private brand products. In Greece, Alfa Beta recently launched the AB Terra Leaf range for detergents, tissue paper, cosmetics and garbage bags that are either eco-friendly or FSC compliant.
“The important increase in the offer and sales of Eco private brand products reflects the change in consumers’ choices and their respect for the environment in their purchasing decisions. This success can also be attributed to the competitive prices of the Eco private brand products” - Dirk Van Den Berghe, Senior Vice President Procurement & Quality, Delhaize Belgium
What do our stakeholders think about it?
Delhaize Group has made good progress in responsible sourcing. Looking at the full value chain, however, I would expect Delhaize Group to focus more on areas of big impact. Upstream in terms of sustainable agriculture and sensitive commodities and downstream in terms of consumer consumption and waste. In my view, a good responsible retailer can make a big difference without shifting the burden. I expect Delhaize Group to focus more on this in the coming years.
Peter-Erik Ywema, Executive Director, Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform