International Green Week (IGW) 2008

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REWE Group makes the Farm Experience into an innovation workshop – Three premieres on the subjects of quality, sustainability, and climate protection alone.

In the view of Alain Caparros, CEO of REWE Group, foods will remain non-inflationary in 2008. The increase in the value-added tax to 19 per cent alone increased the inflation rate by up to 0.4 per cent. In addition, energy costs rose considerably. “Despite the unavoidable adjustments of last year, food prices in Germany are markedly lower than the EU average. And this will remain so in the future. Yet prices will fluctuate over the current year”, Caparros said ahead of the International Green Week beginning next week (January 18 to 27) in Berlin. This marks REWE Group’s first appearance at the Farm Experience at the IGW.

“Food trading in Germany faces a sea change. More and more customers are prepared to pay more at the checkout for fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables in particular, according to representative surveys. This would give retailers the urgently needed room for manoeuvre to compensate at least partially for the rising raw material prices on international markets, but it would also allow them actively to tackle important matters such as sustainability and climate protection”, said Caparros, speaking from the company’s head office in Cologne. Climate change is not a fiction, but a reality. The necessary change could only be accomplished in co-operation – amongst producers, commerce, and customers – Caparros emphasised. “If we embark on a new course in order to achieve even greater product quality while simultaneously getting involved on behalf of social justice and the ecological use of resources, we will not succeed if we only get dumping prices for such a product”.

The Farm Experience as an Innovation Workshop
REWE Group is demonstrating how the company concretely imagines the future of food trading at the Farm Experience during Green Week. The company will make the Farm Experience at the International Green Week into an innovation workshop with three premieres. The central focus of the pilot projects will be on aspects of sustainability in modern food trading. REWE Group is joining with Best Alliance to embark on a new course for contractually growing strawberries, peppers, and grapes in foreign countries. REWE Group is thus taking responsibility for its products at an even earlier stage – right on the field. Co-operative projects with WWF and the children’s charity SOS-Kinderdörfer (children’s villages) put the emphasis on ecological and social aspects in the framework of the Best Alliance project. In addition, the official launch for the national REWE organic products campaign will occur at the Farm experience – allowing REWE to introduce its new organic line to an international audience for the first time. Penny is sending a signal by selling socially responsible coffee bearing the Fair Trade seal, indicating that the 2,000 Penny stores nationwide are engaged on behalf of equal opportunities and sustainability in coffee-producing countries. REWE Group will be represented on its own 1,700 square-metre area at the Farm Experience (Hall 3.2). Together with 50 other exhibitors at the Farm Experience, REWE Group will provide an overview of the complex world of food trading and of the modern agricultural and nutrition industries in Germany and Europe.

Contemporary Show Programme with Daily Themes and Discussion Rounds
People who visit the Farm Experience can look forward to a diverse programme put on by REWE Group. The stage show will be both informative and entertaining, with scientists, politicians, experts, prominent athletes, and other guests discussing current issues on dedicated thematic days, covering items such as food prices (Jan. 18), Best Alliance (Jan. 18), quality assurance in the value-added chain (Jan. 19), healthy diet and exercise (Jan. 20), organic products at REWE and Penny (Jan. 21), protecting the climate (Jan. 21 and 25), training (Jan. 22), Fair Trade at REWE and Penny (Jan. 23), sustainability (Jan. 24), regional products and products from the east (Jan. 26), and REWE Group’s involvement in the Dinner Table charity (Jan. 27).
Star cooks and chefs such as Sarah Wiener will provide an appetizing glimpse into the culinary art of cooking in the demonstration kitchen at the Farm Experience. Visitors who want to do more than just watch the show can get a taste of the high quality of REWE Group’s private labels at numerous food sampling stands, or they can choose to bake their own goodies at the hands-on interactive bakery. Visitors to the REWE Group Quiz can test their knowledge about the food business, REWE Group itself, as well as about nutrition and exercise – all while having the chance to win attractive prizes such as holiday packages.

The Farm Experience is a joint initiative of the Centrale Marketing-Gesellschaft der deutschen Agrarwirtschaft mbH (CMA), Deutsche Bauernverband e.V. (DBV – the German association of farmers), Fördergemeinschaft Nachhaltige Landwirtschaft e.V. (FNL – a German non-profit society to promote sustainable agriculture), and information.medien.agrar e.V. (i.m.a.), all of which are co-ordinated by FNL. The Farm Experience is sponsored by the bank Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank. The radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk is the Farm Experience’s official media partner.

Founded in Cologne in 1927, REWE Group (REWE, toom, PENNY, toom BauMarkt, ProMarkt, AtlasReisen, DER-Reisebüros, ITS, Dertour) – with 43.5 billion euros in turnover, 270,000 employees, and 12,000 stores in 14 countries – is the second largest food trading company in Germany and the number three among European trading and travel and tourism companies.