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Alter Eco

Alternative to mainstream chocolate, coffee and tea from unknown plantations

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Description

Alter Eco is a French brand of organic and fair trade chocolate, coffee, tea, herbal tea, rice, quinoa and sugar, sold in French supermarkets and organic shops. All its products carry both an organic label and a fair trade label, from Max Havelaar (Fairtrade) or Fair for Life.

It was started in 1998 by Tristan Lecomte and in 2002 became the first fair trade brand sold in French supermarkets. Since 2013 it has belonged to the group now called Ecotone (Bjorg, Bonneterre), which the investment fund PAI Partners took over in 2019. Ecotone is an entreprise à mission and a B Corp, with a score of 123.7 in 2025. The French brand is separate from Alter Eco Americas, a US chocolate company with other owners.

Alter Eco says it buys from 25 cooperatives in 17 countries, such as the cocoa cooperative ACOPAGRO in Peru, and funds agroforestry projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala, Colombia and the Philippines. A chocolate bar costs about 2.20 to 2.90 € in shops (checked November 2026). 60 Millions de consommateurs ranked its 70 % Équateur bar first in a dark chocolate test, at 14.5/20. In a 2025 UFC-Que Choisir study on cadmium, however, its Pérou 75 % bar was among those exposing children most.

Strengths

  • Every product is both organic and fair trade, checked by outside bodies rather than by the brand itself.
  • It is sold in ordinary supermarkets, so a household can switch without going to a specialist shop.
  • 60 Millions de consommateurs ranked its 70 % Équateur dark chocolate first in its test.

Weaknesses

  • The brand belongs to Ecotone, which is controlled by a private equity fund, not by the producers or a cooperative.
  • UFC-Que Choisir found high cadmium levels in its Pérou 75 % bar, linked to the soils of Latin America.
  • Fair trade shops such as Artisans du Monde refuse supermarkets, where Alter Eco’s products are mostly sold.

Who it is for

Households in France who buy chocolate, coffee or tea at the supermarket and want organic and fair trade without changing where they shop.

Sources

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