3 products
About A!
A! comes from Berlin, but his heart beats in the Mediterranean. A! sells hand-picked delicatessen from the Mediterranean region.
Our goal is to get an A! To offer excellent quality by selecting our delicatessen products and foods with the utmost care. The first priority is personal contact with the producers. We are very close to the farmers and the producers. We know the production sites and the manufacturing process of our products firsthand.
EXCELLENT
A! comes from Berlin, but his heart beats in the Mediterranean. A! sells hand-picked delicatessen from the Mediterranean region.
Our goal is to get an A! To offer excellent quality by selecting our delicatessen products and foods with the utmost care. The first priority is personal contact with the producers. We are very close to the farmers and the producers. We know the production sites and the manufacturing process of our products firsthand.
Only what we have found to be excellent after prior inspection of the production, the production facility and the people behind it comes into our range.
Only what meets our strict criteria ultimately ends up on the shelf. For us, this includes not only the excellent chemical and sensory properties of the products but also ethical values in relation to their production.
FAIR
On the one hand, it is important to us that we get an idea of the production conditions for each product on site. We want to make sure that neither people nor nature are exploited throughout the entire chain, from the farmer's soil to your plates. Where this may not yet be possible, we work with producers to achieve this goal.
That's why we also attach importance to paying fair prices to the producers. Because quality and fairness, sustainable cultivation and sustainable management as well as improvements in the manufacturing process cannot be achieved with discounter prices.
Social
But we go one step further: something from the entire added value should flow back into the region.
That's why we have set ourselves the goal of actively supporting the regions from which our products come - by returning part of the profits to the benefit of nature and people. We support regional social initiatives or nature conservation projects.
Hardly anything threatens people's well-being today more than the destruction of the environment. That's why, for us, social and ecological issues are closely linked.
Just as we want to know our producers and the regions very well, close communication with the people in the region and their needs is also essential to us.
That's why we decided to get 5% of our profits from the A! to flow into regional projects. In the future, we would also like to develop our own projects with local actors.
Alagonia ZERO WASTE INITIATIVE OUR FIRST PARTNER PROJECT FOR A!
The small community of Alagonia in the Taygetos Mountains in the Peloponnese/Greece launched a zero waste initiative in 2020.
Alagonia lies on the spectacular Langada Pass, which connects Kalamata with Sparta. This road winds in breathtaking serpentines through the Taygetos, the highest mountain range in the Peloponnese. The village of Alagonia has around 80 residents in winter and around 150 in summer. Up to 1,000 visitors come to its largest village festival (Panigiri) every year for music, food and dancing. Until recently, guests were provided with disposable tableware and plastic tablecloths and each time a truck had to be rented specifically to dispose of the garbage, including many leftover food.
In 2020, the Alagonia citizens' association was able to successfully develop a zero-waste concept: They purchased a basic stock of reusable crockery and cutlery, and instead of plastic there are paper tablecloths on the tables. And the garbage is finally separated! Leftover food and paper tablecloths are composted in the village. The rest is disposed of conventionally. This meant the amount of rubbish could be reduced from a truckload to one large rubbish bag.
The stock of dishes, glasses and cutlery currently needs to be increased for the post-Corona rush, and the villagers need a dishwasher.
We believe that it is precisely such small grassroots initiatives that need to be promoted and supported. Also because they have charisma and role model function. Alagonia is already receiving requests from neighboring villages to lend out the dishes and cutlery.
The aim of the Alagonia citizens' association is to protect the spectacular and, in places, very untouched landscape and to raise awareness and educate people about environmental protection. In this sense, they also run social projects such as the first community swap shop in Greece and various education and awareness programs.