REWE Group's newly founded Centre of Excellence for Agriculture combines a sense of tradition with a start-up mentality. It is the first of its kind in the German food retail sector.
Beyond the narrow boundaries of industry solutions, it pools the expertise of trade and agriculture for fresh impetus, innovative approaches and new ways of working together. The aim is to work together with partners from the German agricultural sector to develop specific projects that will have a pioneering effect on the transformation of sustainable agriculture.
Hans-Jürgen Moog, Management Board Member of REWE Group for Goods / Purchasing, and Emilie Bourgoin, Head of Public Affairs at REWE Group, tell us more about this unique and pioneering concept in the German food retail sector.
Hans-Jürgen Moog
one: What is behind the competence centre and how does it work?
Hans-Jürgen Moog: With REWE and PENNY in particular, we are an important part of agricultural supply chains and are at the interface between agriculture, i.e. our suppliers, and consumers, i.e. our customers. With more than 50 million customer contacts per week in Germany alone, we act as a seismograph of consumer wishes and know the needs of consumers inside out.
Emilie Bourgoin: On the other hand, REWE Group's almost 100-year history as a cooperative in Germany characterises the way we manage relationships. We have always had strong regional roots and therefore also have strong and sustainable relationships with farmers. We know their needs and concerns as well as the limitations of the system. It is therefore only natural to pool this expertise, network it and leverage new approaches from the diversity of our networks.
By founding our competence centre, we are therefore taking the dialogue to a new and pioneering level. We are pooling our expertise and combining it with the know-how of strong partners. It's all about exchanging ideas without any thought bans and networking at eye level.
We bring together farmers, agricultural experts from the scientific community, practitioners, people from the processing industry and REWE Group and actively promote new ideas. To this end, we are creating a strong triangle consisting of a staff unit that coordinates an expert advisory board. To ensure that this remains closely linked to the operational retail business, we are creating an internal steering committee that safeguards the interfaces.
Hans-Jürgen Moog: The advisory board serves as a source of technical impetus, develops ideas and also assesses projects for feasibility. In addition to the expert advisory board, the steering committee will be an internal decision-making body responsible for the strategic coordination of all projects. This will make it possible to pool agricultural expertise even more within REWE Group and develop effective and innovative best practices.
The long-term goal is to work together with partners from the agricultural sector to develop specific projects that will provide impetus for sustainable German agriculture. We want to move from mere ideas to actual products in our stores that serve the transformation towards a more modern agriculture - in close cooperation with the producers.
one: "Future Commission for Agriculture", "Central Coordination of Trade and Agriculture", "Dialogue Network for Sustainable Agriculture" - there are already several platforms that aim to transform agriculture. Why is REWE Group now setting up another platform with the "Competence Centre for Agriculture"?
Hans-Jürgen Moog: We are a cooperative and have strong regional roots from our very DNA. This also gives rise to our aspiration to offer customised and fair solutions for every farmer. We can contribute the agricultural expertise we have built up over many years. But only where we are also a direct buyer of agricultural products - this is possible and effective without intermediaries. We therefore want to expand direct relationships and transparency and also discuss topics outside of the major industry rounds - but above all, we want to implement them in practice.
Emilie Bourgoin
Emilie Bourgoin: Antitrust law, fierce competition, but also traditional, immovable opinions and prejudices restrict us at the major industry meetings. With the competence centre, we are creating our own forum in which we can discuss things without being restricted in our thinking and which can therefore have a pioneering effect on the transformation of agriculture. This is unique in the German - if not European - food trade.
Hans-Jürgen Moog: And it strengthens our role as a sustainable, innovative and locally rooted local supplier.
Our independent retailers and our stores are present at more than 3,700 locations throughout Germany and thus maintain direct, partnership-based links with local farmers. What many people don't realise is that farmers can only supply us from a single store. Our REWE Local Partnership alone is groundbreaking in the industry.
In addition, there are already numerous REWE and PENNY projects at regional level that are being implemented together with farmers: for example, the "Landmarkt concept" in Hesse, "Geprüfte Qualität Bayern" and the "Regionalfenster Niedersachsen" or the "PENNY Zukunftsbauer". But the many regional meat programmes such as the "Strohwohl Schwein" in North Rhine-Westphalia also contribute to our agricultural expertise. We are bundling all of this as a foundation in the centre of excellence and further expanding our pioneering role.
one: What are the next steps?
Emilie Bourgoin: The competence centre is now being systematically launched: Our Agriculture department will approach suitable members for the expert advisory board. At the same time, the internal steering committee of retailers and REWE Group employees will be formed. Then the content-related work will begin.
Hans-Jürgen Moog: The topics range from the discussion of agricultural production costs and corresponding remuneration models to the development of new types of contract models. Our aim is to be a reliable and competent partner for agriculture. In short: talking to each other instead of about each other.
Finally, we can start implementing the first concrete projects. The combination of a sense of tradition with a start-up mentality is our recipe for success. It ensures joint innovations.
REWE Group is the first food retailer in Germany to establish an agricultural competence centre. In doing so, we are creating a forum in which agricultural experts from science, practice, production and our retail professionals develop ideas for Germany, examine their feasibility and take concrete steps.
The aim is to work together to develop and implement projects and measures that provide impetus for agriculture. After all, the transition to a more sustainable agriculture requires concrete steps and new solutions. Rural structures must be preserved, while at the same time the environment must be protected. In order for everyone - especially farmers - to benefit from this, nothing less than a transformation of agriculture is needed, which can only succeed with new ways of working together on an equal footing and without any prohibitions.
