Fifteen years ago, REWE — a pioneer in the German food retail sector — launched its strategic partnership with Naturland Zeichen GmbH to strengthen organic farming and make organic products accessible to a broader market. It has been a success: About half of REWE’s more than 850 organic products — including all REWE organic meat products — now bear the Naturland seal. No other food retailer in Germany offers a wider variety of private-label items meeting Naturland quality standards or those of any other organic certification body. And in 2023, REWE further expanded its REWE Bio product line and sold more organic items than in the previous year. As soon as a product meeting Naturland standards becomes available in sufficient quantities, REWE adds it to its own organic line.
Organic products have been a key pillar of the REWE GROUP’s sustainability and product range strategy for over 30 years. We will continue to consistently drive this expansion forward,
says Hans-Jürgen Moog, the REWE GROUP management board member responsible for purchasing and store brands, on the occasion of Green Week in Berlin. Just how important and correct the decision made back then was — to sell association-certified products through supermarkets and private labels as well — is becoming clear right now: While we’ve noticed that customers still enjoy shopping for organic products, they are significantly more price-sensitive in these challenging times. This is currently benefiting our organic private-label products in particular, which account for the majority of our organic revenue. REWE has thus not only helped make association-certified products widely available, ensuring their continuous growth in volume, and ultimately establishing them in mainstream society. In times of crisis, we serve as a strong stabilizing force for the organic sector’s sales and, through our purchase guarantees and long-term contracts, provide organic producers with planning security and livelihood security.
For Michael Stienen, a member of the management team of Naturland Zeichen GmbH, the partnership with REWE is a very special organic success story. When the first Naturland-certified products hit the shelves at REWE in 2009, high-quality organic products meeting the association’s standards were still the exception rather than the rule at the local supermarket. Today, it’s a given. The start of our strategic partnership with REWE was an important milestone on the path to making organic products mainstream in Germany,
emphasizes Stienen, who helped initiate the partnership at the time as managing director of Naturland Zeichen GmbH.
The long-standing, trusting collaboration with Naturland farmers, Naturland Zeichen GmbH, and its partner companies throughout the entire value chain encompasses many aspects. These include corporate-level programs for marketing produce from farms that are in the process of transitioning from conventional to organic farming. Most recently, in the spring of 2023, REWE launched its private label “REWE Wegbereiter.” The additional revenue generated by “Wegbereiter” products compared to non-organic fruits and vegetables benefits Naturland producers.
REWE is one of the organic pioneers in the German food retail sector. Since 1988—back then under the name “Füllhorn”— REWE has been offering organic products under its own brand in supermarkets. In total, REWE has listed well over 6,000 different items with an organic seal.
PENNY has been partnering with Naturland since last year. The discount retailer has seen rising demand for organic products for years. In 2023 alone, sales growth exceeded ten percent. Currently, PENNY’s organic assortment—including its own Naturgut brand and all promotional items—totals over 500 items, the majority of which are produced domestically. Through its partnership with Naturland, PENNY is not only expanding its organic offerings but also reinforcing its commitment to organic farming in Germany. The first product to launch was Naturland-certified oat bran. PENNY will continue to systematically expand its organic product range in the coming years. In the eyes of customers, locally sourced organic products represent the synthesis of three trends: regional, seasonal, and—as far as possible—packaging-free.
Furthermore, through this partnership, REWE and PENNY offer customers products that meet higher ecological standards. This is because Naturland standards go far beyond those of the EU Organic Regulation. For example, during the annual Naturland audits, in addition to compliance with organic farming criteria, social guidelines are also strictly reviewed; these apply worldwide to 125,000 Naturland producers in over 60 countries. Another benefit of this close partnership is transparency regarding the product’s origin. Using the batch or lot number on the packaging, it is possible to trace exactly which field and which farm the product comes from.
