Albert Heijn: 'Growers satisfied with pricing policy'

Said Belhassan, who is responsible for the fruit and vegetable department at Albert Heijn, explains that the supermarket chain is working with growers on sustainable crop cultivation. The fact that less plant protection products are used as a result does not mean that growers are dissatisfied. "On the contrary, they are standing in line."

Belhassan made this known in a response to the Albert Heijn investigation. This research shows that more than 25% of the crops in the fruit and vegetable shelf of Albert Heijn can be grown without using the 27 most harmful crop protection products.

Working with growers
Supermarket chain Albert Heijn is working on sustainability, and even wants to be a frontrunner in this area, but does this in its own way; not by imposing grower certification, such as through Milieukeur. Belhassan: "The other retailers impose PlanetProof (formerly Milieukeur) and have to carry out certificates. This while we are conducting pilots with growers and investigating whether it is possible to grow without those 27 resources. However, it also means that if this is not possible, so we don't just impose this on our growers."

That is why Albert Heijn has conducted various pilots together with Natuur & Milieu, with the aim of no longer using the most harmful crop protection products from 2019. This list of 27 resources has been drawn up by the CLM. With 17 of the 49 crops (which are on the shelves of Albert Heijn) it is possible to grow without those resources. In 5 of those 17 crops, these agents were no longer even used. However, it is not yet possible to grow potatoes without those means, among other things.

Most important first
Pilots have yet to be started in the other crops. Belhassan: "We first concentrated on the most important products. The larger the acreage, the greater the impact of successfully launching the pilot."

Belhassan notices that the growers are generally very satisfied. "The growers who participate in the pilots are our best advertisement. We use fair prices, tailor-made for each situation. Better pricing, which is achieved by meeting the environmental targets, benefits the farmer. That's because we working directly with the growers (without intermediaries). Sustainable cultivation is thus a win-win situation." 

Alternative Resources
Other cultivation methods have been used to keep production at a high level even without those 27 products; for example, alternative and non-chemical agents such as garlic preparations were used. Agrifirm also contributes to finding cultivation solutions.

Albert Heijn works with a protocol that contains specific cultivation agreements between the supermarket chain and growers. If the pilots show that a certain crop can be made more sustainable, this will be implemented in the protocol. Belhassan: "That way, the development of sustainability can continue." Other means can also be phased out in the future via the protocol. Albert Heijn is aiming for digital registration of substance use as much as possible.

Anne-Jan Doorn

Anne Jan Doorn is an arable expert at Boerenbusiness. He writes about the various arable farming markets and also focuses on the land and energy market.

aj.doorn@boerenbusiness. Nl

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