August 15 – Albert Heijn is taking the next step in supply chain transparency with a new, interactive world map published on ah.nl. The map shows the more than 1,200 locations where its own-brand products reach the final step in the production process. The aim is to give customers more insight into the origins of Albert Heijn’s products so they can shop with confidence.
Albert Heijn’s assortment consists of around 11,000 own-brand products and more than 46,000 products in total. Many are produced in the Netherlands, but others originate in different places around the world, according to their principle of sourcing products “as close as possible and as far as necessary.” Albert Heijn knows the composition and origin of all its own-brand products and wants to pass on this information to customers.
The map shows the distribution of the production locations around the world at a glance and then enables a user to search further by country, product group and supplier. The information on the map will be expanded with data about the production process of fresh products such as vegetables, fruit, dairy, meat and fish.
In the past year, Albert Heijn has developed several initiatives to make the international supply chains of its own-brand products more transparent. For example, it has introduced blockchain to track orange juice and egg production. In addition, the brand published its due diligence approach on ah.nl at the beginning of this year. This approach describes how the supermarket identifies and addresses potential and actual adverse consequences of the production of its products for people and the environment. The world map is a next step within this due diligence approach – you can find it here.
