Sustainable Foods Summit 2010

About 140 people took part in the Sustainable Foods Summit organised by Organic Monitor from 10 – 11 June 2010. The summit in Amsterdam attracted speakers and participants from all over the world. The level of information was overwhelming and the organisation was first-class. Besides the interesting conference programme, the summit offered a platform for networking. The next summit organised by Organic Monitor, the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit, will be held in Paris in October.

The conference was divided into sessions. The opening session gave an update on sustainability in the food industry. Although organic and fair trade are the leading eco-labels, new initiatives are gaining importance. Details were given of carbon labelling, water labelling and similar schemes, and case studies of food companies at the cutting edge of sustainability initiatives were presented. Speakers at this first session came from the Irish Government, FAO, Organic Herb Trading Company, Provamel, Nestlé, Altromercato, DSM and The Real Stevia Company. (Picture: Irish Minister of State Cuffe)

Session two was dedicated to fair trade, the fastest growing sector of the eco-labelled food industry, and key papers not only enabled food and ingredient companies to make decisions about adopting fair trade practices but also to assess their benefits and gauge the future growth potential. The session opened with details of the leading fair trade labelling schemes and revealed the latest facts and figures on the global market for fair trade foods together with future growth projections. Speakers at this session came from Max Havelaar, FLO, Ecocert, IMO, Alter Eco and Tate & Lyle.
 

With marketing having arguably most influence on the success of the new ethical products, session three focused on marketing best-practices. Case studies of companies successfully and legitimately meeting the green marketing challenges were presented. Papers focused on communicating sustainability values, expanding brand distribution, the future of ethical retailing as well as the dangers of greenwashing. The potential of social media marketing was explored and insights into consumer behaviour towards sustainability food products were provided. Speakers at this third session included Organic Monitor, Followfish, Coop Switzerland, Albert Hejin, Green & Black’s, Eosta, Pricewaterhousecoopers and Porter Novelli.

Session four focused on the major issues associated with sustainable sourcing. Key papers covered the challenges of commodity sourcing, the role of sourcing round tables, sustainable sourcing innovations and building transparent supply chains. The second part of this session looked at the latest developments in sourcing packaging. Details were given of the various packaging types and their applications to ethical food products. Speakers were from Solae, Tchibo, WWF, 4C Association, UTZ, Reggs and Novamont.
 

Provamel announced at the beginning of 2010 that it now has a CO2 neutral production process. They achieved this buy saving energy, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy and by supporting external CO₂ reducing projects. They made this calculation together with Ecofys. Nestlé mainly focused on water management. The Elovena brand was the first brand with a Water Footprint label (ISO Standard).  Nestlé tries to achieve zero water discharge and to release no grey water. Waste water is managed at high standards in their factories worldwide. Where laws and regulations are lacking, Nestlé implements its own internal standards.
 

Food SCP was launched in 2009 and stands for “European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Round Table”. It has three goals: creating uniform environmental assessment methodologies for food and drinks; identifying suitable tools and guidance for voluntary environmental communication to consumers and other stakeholders; and promoting continuous environmental improvement measures along the entire food supply chain.

Altromercato is a consortium of 125 members, non-profit organisations that run 350 “World Shops” all over Italy, where it is the most popular fair trade brand with a market share of 60 % and 85 million euros retail value. 3,000 small retail shops and supermarkets as well as school canteens, vending machines and coffee shops sell Altromercato’s 300 food products and its 1,500 handicraft and 100 cosmetics products. Important values of the brand are biodiversity, the southern part of the world and ecological and organic issues. Communicating the Altromercato brand in stores expresses its values: being close to producers as well as to consumers, reducing distances, speaking about relationships, a sense of belonging, showing energy, being innovative and showing fair trade as a vital happy experience for all. Altromercato was the first to use aluminium-free packaging for chocolate and to use PLA 100 % compostable packaging for their cosmetics range.
 

Max Havelaar’s fair trade success began with the response of a Mexican coffee farmer at  the end of the 1980s: “Of course we’re glad about the support you’re giving us. But it would be better if we received a fair price for our coffee. Then we wouldn’t need your donations anymore and we could take the future in our own hands”. The company can proudly look back at 22 % growth in 2008 and 15 % in 2009. FLO unites 21 fair trade labelling initiatives under one umbrella that is worth 3.4 billion euros in sales. Fair trade is a response to unfair trade and trade rules working in favour of rich countries. 2 billion people survive on less than 2 $ per day and poverty makes them vulnerable to exploitation. 76 % of FLO-certified organisations are small producers. Fair trade does not guarantee contracts or volumes but tries to create transparency in price setting.
 

Ecocert fair trade, together with IMO Fair for Life, is an answer to the almost monopoly of FLO fair trade. For over 20 years Ecocert has been working with 40,000 clients in 86 countries and certifies 80,000 products as organic (food, cosmetics, textiles) and fair trade. Fair trade is based on four basic principals: sustainability, development, close partnership and transparency.
 

IMO Fair for Life (Swiss certifier) is a social and fair trade responsibility label worldwide (not only for the south) and applies to all products. It is based on a development approach and a public rating system for each project.

Alter Eco is the French leader in organic and fair trade distribution. It is totally dedicated to organic small scale agriculture and has an annual turnover of 15 million euros. Operating with the French AB logo and the Max Havelaar logo, their most important product is chocolate without lecithin that comes from Peru. They carry out a fair trade audit once a year, making use of their Alter Eco gauge and their Alter Eco index to identify fair trade projects.
 

Tate & Lyle has transformed its entire retail cane sugar range to fair trade, marking the largest ever switch to the ethical labelling scheme by any major UK food or drink brand. In the first year alone, the switch created a return of 2 million £ in fair trade premiums for 6,000 cane farmers in Belize, an initiative that was given broad press coverage. UK shoppers are willing to pay extra for  high quality, free range, locally produced, fair trade, well known brands, organic, retailers’ best brands, high animal welfare, environmentally friendly and added health benefits (in descending order). The most trusted brands are Max Havelaar, Soil Association, Green & Black’s, Coop, and M & S (in descending order).
 

Organic Monitor (picture: Amarijt Sahota of Organic Monitor) revealed that Oceania, Latin America and Asia export nearly all their organic products. The USA, Germany, the UK, France and Italy are the main organic consumers in the world. In ten years organic sales have tripled and fresh and healthy products are favoured most . There is growing demand by consumers for environmentally friendly products, chemical-free products, product origins, local products and concern for the carbon footprint.
 

Followfish, that was founded in 1999, merged organic standards, traceability and sustainability and is already achieving a turnover of 25 million euros. “Consumers who long for a different world ask for brands with visions to change the world,” Jürg Knoll, Managing Director of Followfish, stated. The company sells high-quality fish products mainly to German and Austrian supermarkets. All wild fish has an MSC label, all farmed fish carries an organic logo and all packaging displays an online tracking code.  The market for sustainable fish has grown from nearly nothing in 2000 to big in 2010. Rewe CEO Alain Caparros explained that their plan was to bring sustainable products out of the niche market into the mass market.
 

Albert Heijn, with 830 supermarkets and 76,000 employees, try to make the ordinary affordable and the extraordinary attainable, so that rich and poor can shop together. Labels have different colours depending on whether they are organic, fair trade, free range (meat and eggs), from sustainable sources (seafood) and/or ecological. To Albert Heijn, sustainable values are healthy living, sustainable trade, climate action, community engagement and people.

Coop Switzerland’s sales of sustainable private brands amounted to 1.6 billion CHF in 2009, or 7 % of its total turnover. Intensive marketing was one of the key factors in this success. Coop offers eight different own brands: Naturaplan for organic food (2,000 items), Naturaline for organic cotton, Naturaline for natural cosmetics, Oecoplan for environmentally friendly non- food items, Naturafarm for meat and eggs, Swiss Mountains for local products, ProSpecieRara for old varieties of fruit, vegetables and livestock, and the Slowfood logo. The company stocks more than 100 fair trade products, and more than 30 % of their fish is organic or MSC. Rapper Stress and their organic magazine “Verde”, which is published four times a year with one million copies, are responsible for communication. Coop will be CO2 neutral by 2013. Switzerland sells most fair trade products worldwide, worth 34 CHF per capita.

Pricewaterhousecoopeers explained that sustainability is going mainstream and can be a competitive advantage as a response to the new kind of consumer who has specific needs and is prepared to spend more. In the UK, this customer is more concerned about the environment than about poverty, terrorism or food and water shortages. 22 % of customers are acting consciously in their buying decisions and want more information on labels and other media. This savvy consumer may be rich and poor. Fair trade and environmental issues are more important to him or her than organic. Clarity and trust are important in communication, and sustainability must not be a campaign of fear but positive, and information must be “spoon-fed”.

Green & Black’s, acquired by Cadbury in 2005, is taking an ethical brand mainstream. Against the background of the dust bowl in 1935, the launch of the Soil Association in 1946 by Eve Balfour, and health and macrobiotic influences, Green & Black’s was founded by Craig Sams (picture) in 1991. Referring to a macrobiotic restaurant visited by John Lennon, articles explaining that a “hippy diet could be deadly”, the first whole rice from the Camarque (hand-weeded, air-dried and organically grown), peanut butter without sugar and Green & Black’s organic dark chocolate bar (certified by Nature & Progrès), Craig Sams, one of the most charismatic speakers at the summit, explained his vision and revealed his deep knowledge of organic.
 

Porter Novelli, who specializes in strategic advising, explained the potential of social media. There are now three times more mobile devices than computers, and kids and younger people are playing more on their computer or mobile phone than watching TV. There are the so-called “digital natives” (younger people) and the “digital immigrants” (older people), who believe that “if it cannot be found on Google it cannot be good.” Social media should be used for social relations with the customer. Forums, blogs, tweets, comments, websites and digital newsletters can be channels to inform and educate the digital native consumer.
 

WWF explained the importance of “round table” initiatives. All the stakeholders discussed sustainability issues together. Reggs stated that sustainable packaging for ecological products must score high in technical performance and design and must be consumer-friendly. Novamont is a company that makes compostable plastics from vegetable oils and resins, called Mater-Bi. 

The next editions of the Sustainable Foods Summit will take place in North America and Europe in 2011. The proceedings of the Amsterdam summit (June 2010) are available for a small professional fee.

Further infos:
http://www.sustainablefoodssummit.com/
http://www.sustainablecosmeticssummit.com/