Ceres Organics
Founded in 1982, Ceres Organics started with a passion to make organics widely available to Kiwis. Today, they distribute thousands of products from internationally-recognized brands.
About
Ceres Organic’s story began in 1982, when Juliet Lamont opened her organic fresh produce stand in Auckland.
As a mother, Juliet wanted to feed her two boys organic food, but it wasn’t readily available in stores at the time. So she took the initiative to find others wanting organic food and called on organic farmers she knew to supply what they produced.
Over the years her efforts grew into the first organic food store in New Zealand. The store was given the name Ceres, after the Roman goddess of the harvest.
Today Ceres Organics is the premier certified organic Australasian distributor of foods, health and beauty products, household cleaners and more.
Ceres Organics sources their products and ingredients from farmers around the world and makes every effort to ensure that the people they buy from work under fair conditions.
In Peru, where Ceres sources its quinoa, many farmers were previously relying on coca farming to make ends meet. Coca is used in traditional medicines and teas, but is also a key ingredient of cocaine. Without other options, many Peruvian farmers were pushed into illegal livelihoods.
“Growing quinoa has helped farmers to make their communities safer.”
Today, Ceres Organics work with around 5000 Peruvian quinoa farmers to process and export their quinoa. Ceres pays a “social premium” on the goods so that funds can go towards initiatives chosen by Peruvian locals including:
• Increasing female participation in organic production
• Reducing solid waste and by-product contamination in farming areas through organic recycling
• Improving soil health in the farming areas through reforestation and other such practices
• Improving the Fair Trade IBD commission's organisational and management capacity
And this is just one of the numerous similar projects in regions around the world.
Ceres Organics isn’t your typical corporate entity. They always strive to put people over profit and build intimate relationships with their suppliers.
When one of their growers was experiencing financial difficulty a few years ago, Ceres Organics supported her though the financial strain — working with her and her bank to provide proof of committed purchases, and pre-purchased seeds and crates.
And their support enabled another one of their growers to build her third and fourth glasshouses for organic spinach and herbs.
“As well as working with our current partners, our team actively encourages new growers to take steps toward becoming organic.”
Ceres has recently set up a new fund to help support New Zealand growers convert their farms to certified organic. They also provides charitable donations to several Kiwi organisations:
The Auckland City Mission
Organics Aotearoa New Zealand
GE Free Northland
Products
Baking & cooking ingredients, breakfast food, condiments, flours, fruit, hot & cold drinks, nut & seed Butters, oils, pasta & noodles, rice & grains, seasonings, snack foods, soup, sweeteners, tomatoes
Certification
Organic
Website
