Oxfam Novib reports that the five largest supermarkets in the Netherlands, Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Lidl, Aldi and PLUS are maintain the economic exploitation of the people in developing countries who produce our food. All five supermarket chains received a failing grade on Oxfam Novib's international sustainability ranking of supermarkets.
Oxfam Novib judged the policies and practices of the largest supermarkets from the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States based on labour conditions and wages in developing countries, among other issues. None of the internationally investigated supermarkets, such as Ahold Delhaize, Jumbo, Walmart, Tesco and Lidl received points for living wages for employees working for suppliers in developing countries, among others. This shows from new research by Oxfam Novib into 16 of the largest supermarkets in the world, which was publish on Tuesday.
The new Oxfam Novib report 'Ripe for Change' shows that in the Netherlands, out of 12 investigated products from developing countries - from shrimp to avocados - around 44% of the price the consumer pays in store goes to supermarkets, compared to around 8% for the employees and small scale farmers in developing countries. Employees and small scale farmers received 10 cents for every Euro the consumer spent at the till 20 years ago. Now this has declined to less than 8 cents per Euro. And the prediction from analysts is that this will decline even further. The eight largest listed supermarket chains in the world including Walmart, Tesco and Ahold-Delhaize, turned over almost a trillion dollars in 2016 and made a total profit of 22 billion dollars. 15 billion dollars of this was paid out as dividends to shareholders.
Albert Heijn response to Oxfam Novib report
"We want the same thing: an honest chain of origin for our products. This is why it is good that Oxfam Novib brings this to our attention."
"This can only be done by working step by step each day with our partners in the chain such as suppliers, authorities and interested organisations such as Oxfam Novib."
"But we don't want people to think that Albert Heijn isn't doing anything at the moment. In the chain for fruits and vegetables for instance, we know our suppliers. And we have been working with them for a very long time. We set far reaching requirements for our suppliers, with extra attention in the countries Oxfam Novib is talking about. We also work a lot with trade marks and certifications in those countries, which goes a long way.
All of our coffee, tea and cocoa is UTZ certified; we go to the farmers themselves. Another example is our fruit and vegetable suppliers such as the grapes from South Africa, the bananas from Ecuador, the avocados from Peru and the tomatoes from Morocco with whom we've been working for years. We even visit the farms here."
"We invite Oxfam to find concrete communal points of improvement in their research that can help with a solution."