Three questions with Elisabeth Promberger on the value of regional product ranges

The Regional Star award ceremony at the International Green Week is always something very special, especially as REWE and REWE stores are regularly among the award winners. This year, REWE Group once again entered the competition with some great concepts. We have been marketing regional and local products very successfully for many years, something we can be proud of. We are committed to sustainable and strong local agriculture. That’s why it was a pleasure for me to be involved in the award ceremony and to take part in the exchange.

REWE Region Süd set out many years ago to offer local and regional products in its stores. The goal is clear: as much regional produce as possible! Today, more than 80 percent of the fruit and vegetables in season come from Bavarian cultivation. In total, we offer over 6,500 products from Bavaria. Since 2015, we have been using meat in our butcher’s counters that is certified according to the criteria of the state seal “Geprüfte Qualität Bayern”. And in addition to the origin, the farming is also important to us. That’s why we work closely with Bavarian producer associations and, thanks to this alliance with our Bavarian farmers, we have been able to offer meat in husbandry form 3 since last year – be it pork, beef, oxen or chicken.

Of course, customers also need to be convinced of the regional and local products and their quality. That’s why we invest a lot in communication. It is particularly important to us to inform customers about the benefits of products from the region.

Thanks to our cooperative structures, we are at home in our respective regions. That is why we also feel a strong connection to local agriculture. Our retailers are rooted locally, they know the local producers and form local partnerships on an equal footing. With our regionality strategy, we want to make our contribution to preserving the typical small-scale agriculture in Bavaria and securing jobs in Bavarian agriculture. We want to establish sustainable regional cycles so that agricultural businesses and farms can continue to operate successfully for generations to come.

Regionality is our passion. This is what we, our markets, our retailers and our purchasing teams stand for. This spurs us on mutually. In order to successfully offer regional products, you also have to be able to rethink, because regionality is manual work! Every regional producer is different. That’s why we have created structures with our own regionality team to make it as easy and uncomplicated as possible to include products from regional producers on our shelves.

Regionality has now become an important differentiating factor because customers really appreciate regional products. I am convinced that good and fair partnerships with regional producers are increasingly becoming a decisive competitive factor, especially for fruit and vegetables and in the butcher’s shop. We don’t just talk about regionality, we live it – in our structures, in our heads and in our hearts.