This company is founded by development specialists: three men’s individual paths from different corners of the world have led to a for-profit company whose goal is to change the current structure of world trade. The core of their interests lies in changing the quality of life for developing nations and impoverished communities.
When it comes to fair trade food products these guys have it down to a science. Alter Eco is passionate about their social mission and dedicated to doing good. Established in 1999 as a small shop in Paris selling furniture, handicraft and some food products, Alter Eco didn’t stop there. In 2002 they launched a full range of Fair Trade food products available in mass retail stores in France. In their first year they knocked the Frenchies’ socks off and became the number one Fair Trade food brand in France. Alter Eco picked up a ton of other retail accounts and continued to grow. Finally in 2005 they started making products available in North America and Australia, and there doesn’t seem to be any stopping them. The good thing for us is that Alter Eco is a socially conscience company that is committed to promoting more equity in our society, and they are doing it through honest business.
The Purpose:
I was lucky enough to talk to Alter Eco co-founder Edouard Rollet about the mission of his company, the lives they have already touched and the company plans for the future. I asked Edouard about the beginning of the brand and he shared with me this: “The goal of this company is to have an impact in farming communities around the developing world. The idea of selling a wide range of Fair Trade and organic products to grocery stores was to scale our company — that’s been going on for the last eight years. We met in business school — Matthew, Tristan and I all worked in development —Matthew in an orphanage in Cambodia, Tristan started an organization in Nepal and I worked for UNICEF in Africa. We all had a very deep desire to work with people and villages in the developing world — and we have been able to leverage this desire and put it into the business model.”
Edouard tells a particular story of impact made possible by Fair Trade: “We work with a lot of co-ops in a lot of countries — 40 countries and 60 co-ops. The co-op in Peru called is very telling; it represents the holistic approach we want to take with development, not just paying a fair trade price. The story of the farmers is really interesting — 1200 farmers were in the early 90s coca farmers (the plant derivative of cocaine) — and they were working for two terrorist organizations that were fighting the Peruvian government and were drug traders operating in the area where these farmers were living. These farmers didn’t have much choice, they were making little money and when you go there and talk to them and they remember these years they tell stories of every week the dead bodies floating down the Amazon River. In the late 90s, Fujimori was in power (Peruvian president from 1990 – 2000) and he worked with the US to fight those terrorist groups. The US and the UNDP set up a program to help those farmers transition from coca to cocao (plant derivative of chocolate) — they became a co-op about eight years ago specializing in fair trade and organic cocao – and we have been buying from them in the last four years.”
In addition to providing fair trade pricing and fair trade premium, Alter Eco has implemented programs to improve the environmental impact this business makes. They have successfully off-set all carbon emissions from the co-ops in Peru, and have started an agro forestry program that is an integrated approach to farming. Combining trees and shrubs with crops, it marries agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive and sustainable land.
Alter Eco is also a certified B Corp. Edouard offered reasons for joining this elite group of businesses. “There are 2 main reasons why we are a B Corp. First the mission of the company is our DNA — the company is obligated to look at all stake holders in order to make a decision, to safeguard the mission of the company. The other reason we became a B Corp is that it is a community, it is a way of belonging to a community of like-minded people.”
Alter Eco Tea Audit – Sri Lanka
The Profit:
Alter Eco has Fair Trade products from 40 countries and 60 co-ops worldwide and keeps growing. “The focus of our company is really triple bottom line — the US business in 2007 grew 350 percent and then 25 percent in 2008 and 2009 and we expect to grow 100 percent this year.” Those are some impressive number for any sized company!
When asked about the company’s plan for the next five years Edouard said, “We are always fine tuning the company to meet consumer needs in the US we are working to develop new products to meet our consumers needs and to influence small scale farmers.”
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Photos courtesy Alter Eco.