Knowing the origins
REWE is the first major grocery retailer in Germany to provide traceability for bananas from its own brands right through to the producer. As a further novelty in the industry, customers also receive individual information about the social and environmental standards under which the tropical fruits are produced. For years, REWE has been 
involved in the growing countries, with sustainability projects and the selection of the right plantations to continuously improve living, working and environmental conditions on the ground.
There is a model farm in southeastern Costa Rica, with which REWE works exclusively and whose operating philosophy is to be taken over by many partners.
The bananas under the label "REWE Best Choice" and "REWE Bio" since this week have a sticker that contains, among other things, a specific QR code. Scanning this will bring customers to REWE website content page, which gives information about the plantation on which the bananas have grown and harvested. In this way, customers also learn which certifications, awards or sustainability projects the farms have that are by no means a matter of course for the producers. "Most of the bananas sold in Germany come from Central and South America, but the production areas often have low social and ecological standards," emphasizes Hans-Jürgen Moog, who is responsible for purchasing at REWE.
"In our sustainability strategy, REWE has therefore been placing great emphasis on the selection of banana suppliers for our own brands, cooperations and certifications for years, thus creating the basis for financial security and sustainable development with our REWE PRO PLANET concept, the Central America Fund even more comprehensive: to initiate a structural change process towards fair, social, ecological and future-proof banana production - also with the broad participation of the respective workforce and their local employee representatives. "
Fair, social and ecological
The model is the cooperation with the "Platanera Río Sixaola", whose bananas REWE exclusively purchases. The team around plantation owner Volker Ribniger produces goods in a way that is as socially and ecologically as could possibly be, growing bananas on the Caribbean coast in southeastern Costa Rica. Sustainable farming practices will conserve flora and fauna, soil, water and climate. The working conditions are good and the employees earn well above the Costa Rican minimum wage. There are weekly meetings, a works council, interest-free loans and an in-house newspaper. In addition to the guidelines required for REWE Best Choice Bananas - Rain Forest Alliance Standard and GLOBALG.A.P. with GRASP - the company additionally also work along the "Marca Pais" certification.
It is also the only banana producer to have been credited for its public commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goals, such as gender equality and respect, on six sustainability projects. "The fact that we were able to win this unique farm is not least due to our previous activities in the Central America Fund, which stands for close cooperation within our supply chain and real added value for the inhabitants of the communities where our bananas are produced," says Florian Schäfer, Sustainability Manager for Fruit and Vegetables at the REWE Group.
Most sustainable banana assortment in retail
"For us, the Platanera Río Sixaola is the beacon project that shows us the way in which we want to move in the future with our partners." Living sustainability in combination with respect for man and nature is an ideal example of the REWE PRO PLANET concept Eugenio Guidoccio, who manages the Fruit and Vegetables business unit at REWE Group Buying, more than meets these standards. "We can argue that our own brands have the most sustainable banana assortment in the German food retail sector, because our standards and commitments not only focus on fair pay but also take holistic consideration of the working, living and environmental conditions of those who buy bananas for us to produce."
Diverse commitment of the REWE Group
For example, the REWE Group has been active in the "World Banana Forum" (WBF) since 2015 and represents the trade in the Steering Committee. In joint projects, it is committed to occupational safety and living wages. Although occupational safety is part of the certification of producers with the seal "Rain Forest Alliance Standard", which is mandatory for the PRO PLANET bananas of the own brand "REWE Best Choice" at the highest level. However, the REWE Group goes one step further with its activities and the BOHESI guideline (Banana Occupational Health and Safety).
The REWE Group has been committed to the more sustainable production of bananas since 2007 and finances local projects in the growing countries in Central and South America, since 2014 with a specially established Central America Fund. The REWE Group has already made available millions of euros to the fund, in order to promote ecological and social projects that improve the environmental and living conditions in the immediate surroundings of the banana plantations on site.
The focus of the projects financed by the "REWE Group Bananenfonds" is on education and youth work, medical care, drinking water infrastructure and biodiversity. The selection criteria for the projects were developed by representatives of local non-governmental organizations (civil society, environmental protection associations, employee representatives and others) with the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH and the REWE Group. Local organizations can apply for their project ideas through tenders. The approved and implemented measures are intensively supervised and controlled locally by the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ-IS) GmbH. So far, 41 projects have already been successfully completed. Currently 17 projects are running and another 13 are approved.
Alliance against banana fungus
The REWE Group is also the first grocery retailer to become involved in an alliance with GLOBALG.A.P. and the World Banana Forum against the current biggest threat to the livelihoods of banana producers and thousands of farm workers worldwide: The continued spread of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum "Tropical Race 4" (TR4).
This disease penetrates the roots into the banana plant and will cause it to dry out. The pathogen is resistant to fungicides and other control measures. Because it remains active in the soil for decades, no new plants of the same banana variety will survive in the same place.
Alternative, TR4-resistant banana varieties are still at the beginning of both scientific development and evaluation and are therefore not yet available. The REWE Group is calling on both its suppliers and the industry as a whole to make every effort to effectively combat and contain the pathogen.
Source: obs/REWE Markt GmbH
For more information: www.rewe.de