Since 2019, the German supermarket chain Lidl has been offering a number of fair-trade products in a range called Way To Go. Chocolate, coffee, cashew nuts… Over the years, the range has grown, while maintaining its original mission: to enable small producers to earn a sufficient income.
Way To Go is the name of Lidl’s clean, fair–trade brand, which has now been available for several years. In Belgium, it currently includes six varieties of chocolate bars (with a seventh soon to be added) and two varieties of coffee beans. In other markets, the range also includes cashew nuts and orange juice.
The Belgian branch of the chain is currently investigating the possibility of one day offering these two products in Belgium. ‘The initiative was originally a collaboration between the Fairtrade label, the NGO Rikolto, which specialises in the agricultural sector, the Ghanaian cooperative Kuapa Kokoo and Lidl Belgium’, explains Ines Verschaeve, sustainability coordinator at Lidl BeLux. ‘In September 2019, our chain launched four varieties of chocolate bars. A year later, around 2,000 stores in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands were in turn selling these bars as well.’ And in 2022, the Belgian subsidiary of the German chain gave new impetus to the project by extending it to coffee.
One goal, three axes
Whether it’s cocoa, coffee, cashew nuts or orange juice, Lidl’s goal with Way To Go remains the same however: to improve working and living conditions of small farmers in at-risk countries of raw agricultural commodities production, and that over the long term. ‘To achieve this, we focus on three main areas: increasing incomes, training and development, and gender equality’, continues Ines Verschaeve. Regarding the first point, Lidl works with Fairtrade to guarantee producers a minimum purchase price for their products (Fairtrade Minimum Price) and an additional premium to be invested in commercial or community projects (Fairtrade Premium). On top of it, the trader also pays his own additional premium to the farmers (Income Improvement Premium), part of which is paid directly to the farmers to improve their individual incomes. The second area ensues from the remainder of this premium, namely funding the various training courses offered to farmers to help them improve their farming methods and develop new sources of income. Finally, some parts of the Way To Go project have been developed specifically to support women farmers.
‘We work closely with our partner Fairtrade, as they have the necessary local knowledge to develop this type of project,’ adds Lidl BeLux’s sustainability coordinator. ‘What’s more, the extra premium we commit to paying goes to the cooperatives through the Fairtrade label. They then invest this money in training their members, diversifying the products they grow, etc.’. How much exactly is this premium? ‘It is difficult to give a fixed amount because it depends on many factors, starting with the price of raw materials’, says Ines Verschaeve. But there are always additional funds on top of the Fairtrade premium,’ she assures us.
‘We have yet to achieve a living wage’
To supply Way To Go cocoa, Lidl works with two Ghanaian cooperatives (the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union and the Kukuom Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Union) and more than 2,200 cocoa farmers in total. Among the major achievements of the programme in Ghana since its inception, the German distributor highlights the fact that more than 3,300 farmers have been able to participate in Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), that 419,000 cocoa seedlings have already been distributed to nearly 1,000 farmers to rehabilitate old farms, or that soap, yam, honey and rice productions have been launched.
In the case of coffee, Lidl works directly with the COMSA cooperative in Honduras. There, Lidl’s fair–trade network has, for instance, been able to involve 178 women producers in its project, help 57 farmers to diversify their crops and help 30 women to start growing more resistant coffee plants. But despite these successes, the producers who supply the raw materials for the Way To Go range are still struggling to reach the decent income threshold. ‘At the moment, we haven’t achieved a living wage for all farmers, mainly because there are so many differences between them in terms of salary,’ admits Ines Verschaeve. ‘However, we are convinced that, thanks to the additional premium invested in the cooperatives, we will end up reaching this vital income systematically, with product diversification and improved working tools enabling farmers to strive to reach this threshold on their own’.
‘We don’t give you a choice between a sustainable product and a less sustainable product’
So why not extend Way To Go to many more products? ‘Our concept focuses mainly on particularly critical raw materials, such as cocoa or coffee,’ explains the sustainability coordinator. But we are constantly refining our approach based on our findings and adding new products. In addition, our internal projects and trusted partners allow us to address the areas where we have the most influence, namely our own supply chains’. Ines Verschaeve concluded by reaffirming Lidl’s determination to act fairly, and more generally in favour of sustainability. ‘We want to inform our consumers about the added value of Way To Go products. Moreover, we sometimes don’t give our consumers the choice between a sustainable product and a less sustainable one. For example, all our bananas are certified sustainable, and we have closed the living wage gap in this chain, while all our cocoa has a sustainability certificate, which is a first step towards a living wage in this case’.
Interview by Anthony Planus for Enabel’s Trade for Development Centre
