08.01.12
• L’Oréal and AAK have signed an agreement to develop the trade of shea kernels to improve the volumes and the quality of the raw material and to secure improved living conditions for women in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
The agreement is linked to an initiative that AAK announced earlier this year, which will triple the company’s activities to include more than 30,000 women in Burkina Faso. L’Oréal will now actively support AAK’s program and will be the receiver of the shea emanating from the project until at least 2014.
“We are very pleased to have L’Oréal as a close partner in this initiative,” said Arne Frank, CEO and president for AAK. “Through our close relations with customers such as L’Oréal and with the local communities where we operate, we are committed to integrating sustainability in all our activities, with a balanced and holistic approach.”
L’Oréal’s interest in shea refers to the company’s Solidarity Sourcing program, which promotes social inclusion in countries where the Group operates. The program reaches out to fair-trade producers, companies working for the inclusion of disabled people, companies promoting social integration, very small, small and mid-sized businesses and minority-owned companies (depending on local law).
The cooperation with AAK will further strengthen L’Oréal’s work by improving the living conditions for the women groups collecting shea kernels in West Africa.