Palm Oil: REWE Group Occupies In WWF Study Top Position In German Trade

Cologne, 22.11.11

International survey on sustainability – palm oil scorecard published

With regard to its palm oil strategy, REWE Group is by far the most sustainable food trading company in Germany. This is the finding of the so-called palm oil scorecard, that has been published some days ago by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). With 6.5 of a maximum of 9 points REWE Group occupies the top position in the category “Retailers” in Germany. Within the framework of an international survey, the WWF assessed 64 German companies.

“The objective of REWE Group is to use in future only sustainable palm oil for its private label products. Based on our palm oil guidelines, all suppliers of REWE Group private label products are required to support the sustainable palm oil production through their purchasing policy. It is a core strategy of REWE Group to primarily use physically separated palm oil certified by RSPO in our private label products. That way, our customers can be sure that they support the responsible and sustainable palm oil production by dedicatedly buying corresponding products”, explained Dr. Ludger Breloh, at REWE Group in charge of sustainable procurement in Strategic Purchasing. This top position gives reason to be pleased. “There is still a lot to do, however”, said Breloh.

“At least in Germany, sustainable palm oil is no longer a shelf warmer”, stressed Martina Fleckenstein, head of the department for EU policy, agriculture and bio mass at WWF Germany. “However, there are still things left to be improved. The survey is just a snapshot and not a ‘blank cheque’ for the future.” The higher the demand for certified palm oil from the consumers, the stronger will become the pressure on the producers.

Oil from oil palms can either be palm oil or palm kernel oil. The demand for palm oil has rapidly been rising for years; consumption currently lies at about 50 million tons.  The main producers are Malaysia and Indonesia, which produce almost 90 per cent of the output. The main consumer countries are India (7 million tons) and China (6 million tons).

REWE Group, founded in 1927, has turnover in excess of €53 billion (2010) and currently employs a workforce of more than 310,000, making it one of the leading trading and travel and tourism groups in Germany and Europe. The company, which has a history extending back more than 80 years, operates over 15,000 stores in 14 countries today. In 2010, the Group employed a workforce of 224,000 in about 11,000 stores in Germany, realising turnover of €36.5 billion. Its sales lines include supermarkets and hypermarkets of the brands REWE, REWE CENTER, REWE CITY, toom and BILLA, the discounter PENNY, the toom BauMarkt DIY stores (toom Baumarkt and B1 Discount Baumarkt) and the consumer electronics stores of ProMarkt. The travel and tourism division includes the tour operators ITS, JAHN REISEN, TJAEREBORG, DERTOUR and MEIER'S WELTREISEN in addition to the business travel segment FCm Travel Solutions and about 2,500 travel agencies (including ATLASREISEN, DER Reisebüro, DERPART). 

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