Behind the Barcodes - Aldi

Send Aldi a Valentine’s card it can’t ignore

Last year, thanks to pressure from customers like you, Aldi published a new human rights policy. But it still hasn’t put it into practice. This Valentine’s day, we’re calling on the supermarket giant to turn its words into action.

Oxfam research found that many farmers and workers who produce the food we buy in UK supermarkets are suffering horrific working conditions. People’s basic needs like food, water and safety are not being met, and are often left trapped in poverty. Aldi, in particular, is not showing how it tackles the critical issues that affect food producers.

This Valentine’s day, tell Aldi you’d love it more if its food producers were better protected. It’s time the supermarket turned its words into action.

@AldiUK I really want to love you more. But you’re failing to protect food producers from poverty and suffering. Last year you published a new human rights policy. That’s a great first step. Now it’s time to turn your words into action. #BehindTheBarcodes
@AldiUK I wish I could say you were perfect. But you’re failing to protect food producers from poverty and suffering. Last year you published a new human rights policy – a great first step. Now it’s time to turn your words into action. #BehindTheBarcodes
@AldiUK It doesn’t have to be this way. But it will until you protect food producers from poverty and suffering. Last year you published a new human rights policy – a great first step. Now it’s time to turn your words into action. #BehindTheBarcodes
@AldiUK You could be amazing. But you must protect the people who produce your food from poverty and suffering. Last year you published a new human rights policy. That’s a great first step. Now it’s time to turn your words into action. #BehindTheBarcodes

The supermarket scorecard

Oxfam has analysed the human rights policies of these leading UK supermarkets and scored them on four carefully selected categories. How does your supermarket score? For our full report please click here.

	Overall score	Transparency	Workers	Farmers	Women
		We ask food retailers to be transparent about their policies and practices to encourage good practice in defending human rights in global supply chains.	The workers who produce our food are often trapped in poverty and unable to meet their basic living costs, due to low pay and power imbalances.	Large-scale agricultural investment in developing countries is driving monoculture expansion and displacing communities, undermining small-holder livelihoods and worsening local food security.	A large proportion of food producers are women; to meet labour rights standards special attention must be paid to their additional vulnerability to exploitation and abuse.
Tesco has the largest groceries market share in the UK. It also trades in nine countries in Europe and Asia, including Thailand where - trading as Tesco Lotus - it is the largest supermarket.	23	29	42	15	5
Sainsbury's is the second largest groceries retailer in the UK where it has 1,412 stores. It also owns a number of other businesses including banking and homeware which were not in the scope of this study.	18	8	38	17	10
Walmart is the largest supermarket chain in the USA. Walmart International has more than 6,200 retail units, operating under 63 banners in 27 countries outside the United States. One of these, Asda in the UK, has 650 stores.	17	0	25	17	29
Lidl has the largest network of discount grocery stores in Europe. The Schwarz Group (of which Lidl is the biggest part) represents 15% of the German market share and 4.4% of the market share in the UK, where it is also one of the fastest growing supermarkets in the UK.	5	8	2	8	0
Morrisons has seen a rapid increase in market share between 2015 and 2017, accounting for 10.7% of the groceries sector in the UK in November 2017and is the fourth largest supermarket in the UK.	5	4	17	0	0
The Aldi group is one of the biggest food discounters in Europe, comprising of Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. Aldi South has more than 5700 branches in eleven countries, including the UK, where it is also one of the fastest growing supermarkets.	1	0	0	4	0

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This scorecard is based on supermarkets' public policies, statements, and commitments.

Reported Human Rights Allegations in the supply chain of companies can be found here: www.business-humanrights.org/barcodes.

Please note, these scores are based on information available publicly up to 9th November 2017. Any relevant changes made by the companies after this date will be considered in the second annual scorecard assessment

Campaign update

Send Aldi a Valentine’s card it can’t ignore

The supermarket scorecard

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