The REWE Group is expanding its own-brand Fairtrade chocolate range: by the end of 2020, all baked confectionery containing cocoa (organic and conventional) in the 5,500 REWE and PENNY stores will switch to Fairtrade or the Fairtrade Cocoa Program. Last year, the Group announced that all own-brand chocolate items (blocks of chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolate boxes, Easter and Christmas confectionery) as well as instant cocoa and hazelnut cocoa spreads would gradually transition to Fairtrade or the Fairtrade Cocoa Program.
These objectives are also part of the updated guidelines for cocoa products recently published by the REWE Group. The guidelines set out a binding framework for the REWE Group and its business relations with contractual partners for more sustainable cocoa cultivation. Their aim is to improve social, ecological and economic conditions in the growing countries, and they define specific requirements to this end. Purchasing more sustainable cocoa products with a view to shaping the sustainable development of cocoa cultivation is very important to the REWE Group. The guidelines apply to all own brands at REWE and PENNY in Germany with a substantial cocoa content. Today, 99 percent of the cocoa in all of the REWE Group’s own brands is already certified as sustainable.
As a founding member of the “Forum for Sustainable Cocoa”, the REWE Group has been committed to certified cocoa growing for many years. Since 2014, the REWE Group has been cooperating with the Fairtrade Cocoa Program which provides small farmers with a more stable income as well as additional income for implementing local projects. The REWE Group has been active in fair trade since 1993 and was the first retailer to bring Fairtrade coffee to stores throughout Germany more than 20 years ago. Tea, confectionery and Fairtrade roses followed. Since then, more and more private labels have featured the Fairtrade seal. In 2014, the REWE Group won the Fairtrade Award in the “Retail” category.
