With the renewed funding, this all adds up to more than 3.5 million euros, which the retail group has made available to the fund. The focus of the projects financed by the "REWE banana fund" is on education and youth work, medical care, drinking water infrastructure and biodiversity.
The selection criteria for the projects have been developed by representatives of local non-governmental organizations (civil structures, environmental protection associations, unions, etc.) with the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH and the REWE Group. Local organizations can apply for funding for their ideas through tenders. Once approved, the projects are intensively supervised and controlled locally by the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ-IS) GmbH. So far, 22 projects have already been successfully completed. Currently, 18 projects are ongoing and a further 22 are approved (as of 05/2018).
This year, REWE has linked its commitment to a publicity campaign, in order to make consumers aware of the topic: for every kilo of bananas, between April 23 and May 5, in around 3,500 REWE and retail markets nationwide REWE donated 10 cents to the "REWE banana fund". REWE's profit of €429,265.70 (last year: €382,182, + 12.3%) has been rounded up to €700,000 (last year: €600,000, + 16.6%).
In addition to this all, REWE is involved in the "World Banana Forum" (WBF) and participates under in a joint project on occupational safety on farms and on establishing good living wages. Furthermore, the improvement of working conditions is the subject of their certification. For the PRO PLANET bananas from its own brand "REWE Beste Wahl", REWE relies on certification of producers with the label "Rain Forest Alliance Standard".
Source: REWE