Albert Heijn Pure and Honoust assortment of FairTrade products

Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn, market leader in The Netherlands, launched an own premium brand range of “Pure and Honoust” products. (In Dutch: Puur & Eerlijk). Products have been cultivated, manufactured and purchased with respect to the people, animals, nature and environment.

Albert Heijn Puur & Eerlijk Sustainable Categories

The Albert Heijn Puur & Eerlijk range consists of five categories. These five categories are: AH Puur & Eerlijk biological food, fairtrade, sustainable fishing, free-range animals and ecological products. All the product groups are grouped under one brand name and one type of, environmental-friendly, packaging. The sustainability of the AH Puur & Eerlijk products are guaranteed by independent external organizations.

Fairtrade: Honoust Price

The Max Havelaar Certificate, which can be found at all the AH Pure&Honoust fairtrade products, guarantees that farmers in third world countries have good working conditions and have good access to the Western markets. This means they get honoust prices for their products. Currently there are 23 countries working with the Max Havelaar certificate. There is an increasing group of Fairtrade-certified product groups like coffee, tea, chocolate, fruit, flowers and cotton.

What does the Max Havelaar Certificate mean?

The Max Havelaar certificate for fairtrade guarantees that the farmer obtains an honoust price for its products. This means that small farmers and their family can work for a better future. Fairtrade only works with small farmers, united in democratic farmer organizations. The farmers together are stronger and are able to better negotiate, furthermore they can get purchasing discounts, can obtain credits, improve their techniques by sharing knowledge and work on social facilities.

The development premium that farmers receive from Max Havelaar is given as social (economical) project. These type of projects take care of better living and working circunstances. The farmers can deal with their own situation. Fairtrade also wants them to take care of sustainable environment, there are strong rules for water, air, garbage, biodiversity etc. This will lead to further improvement and sometimes to a biological certificate.

More information on Max Havelaar.

Source pictures and text: www.albertheijn.nl