The CarrEFour Group and the Bel Group signed an innovative business agreement on February 1 to support the transition in the food and climate.

The CarrEFour Group and the Bel Group signed an innovative business agreement on February 1 to support the transition in the food and climate.

To enable everyone to enjoy a healthy, sustainable diet and to contribute to reducing climate change, the Bel Group and the Carrefour Group have renewed the foundations of their retailer-manufacturer partnership through a business agreement signed on February 1. The combined efforts will provide customers with a full range of options, safeguard the dairy industry, and contribute to keeping global warming below the 1.5°C threshold.

Two organisations dedicated to the transformation in food and climate

The Carrefour Group furthered its efforts to enabling all of its customers to enjoy the healthiest nutrition possible when it revealed its “Carrefour 2026” strategy plan. Carrefour, which pledged to limit its direct emissions to the 1.5°C pathway in 2020 and received a “A grade” for the second consecutive year from the CDP climate change ratings organisation, stated in November 2022 that it was involving its entire ecosystem in the fight against climate change. This entails requesting that its top 100 suppliers commit to a 1.5°C route by 2026; failing to do so could result in their delisting from Carrefour outlets.

Additionally, the Science Based Targets Initiative accepted the Bel Group’s own 1.5°C approach, which was announced in March 2022. (SBTi). It is currently acting throughout the entirety of its value chain. Examples of its product innovations include the increase in plant-based ingredients, assistance for the agricultural industry upstream, eco-friendly packaging, production facilities with less environmental impact, and efforts to reduce food waste.

Since 2020, both businesses have increased their collaborative efforts to address different socioeconomic and environmental challenges, which customers are increasingly attaching importance to. For instance, Bel has consented to the Food Transition Pact of Carrefour. Additionally, it is a member of the multi-sectoral biodiversity working group and the 20 Megatonne platform that Carrefour established to control indirect scope 3 emissions.

On February 1, an unprecedented full agreement was inked.

The agreement that both parties signed focuses on several distinct aspects, including:

– A broad and diverse product portfolio that satisfies all consumer needs, in particular a greater selection of plant-based products and formats that are accessible across all distribution channels.

– In accordance with the 2023 agreement between Bel and the Association des Producteurs de lait Bel Ouest, support for the dairy industry through an increase in milk prices (association of dairy producers for western France)

– A review provision that takes into account increases in milk prices in accordance with the “trickle-down” theory and the guiding principles of the EGALim 2 law

– Using business KPIs to manage goals and reducing the carbon footprint of Bel goods sold at Carrefour

The agreement has been in place since February 1 – before the legally required closing date – in recognition of the problems facing their ecosystems. This shows how eager both parties are to move through with their plans to support the transition in how we eat and how we live.

Bel France’s CEO, Béatrice de Noray, said:

Our partnership and this agreement are in line with Bel’s initiatives to make it possible for everyone in France to eat responsibly, which include fairly compensating our livestock farmers-partners, promoting sustainable agricultural practises, creating more plant-based offerings, and streamlining our transportation arrangements. It perfectly exemplifies the relationship-based strategy required by the agrifood industry to uphold the importance of a high-quality, sustainable diet for French citizens.

The Executive Director of Engagement for the Carrefour Group, Carine Kraus, said:

Carrefour, which has already demonstrated a strong commitment to its own climate strategy, has now chosen to integrate its entire ecosystem in the fight against climate change. We are achieving this by requiring our top 100 suppliers to start their own plans to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2026; in the absence of such plans, they will be removed from our stores. On climate change, we are also forming alliances with our more sophisticated suppliers, like Bel. The agreement we signed at the beginning of the year includes environmental goals in addition to economic ones, which is unprecedented.

GSN