The organic eggs with the Naturland label come from the Eichberghof farm in Münsingen in the Swabian Alb. They have been available since 7 October in a carton of four at a price of 2.29 euros. The hens and cockerels are reared according to organic criteria. The meat from the roosters is currently being marketed by the producer Hönig Hof, Mühlingen, while REWE is examining how a supply chain for processing the young rooster meat can be established in the further course of the project.

For decades, poultry farming has been working with chicken breeds that specialise in high performance - either those that lay a lot of eggs or those that produce meat quickly and effectively. These are called hybrid breeds and are almost exclusively available in the poultry industry. The development of breeding for one performance trait poses major challenges for the organic sector in particular. This is because the organic guidelines require the rearing of "brother chickens", which is resource-intensive and very uneconomical for farmers. With dual-purpose chickens, on the other hand, the rooster and hen are economically independent animals. They therefore represent a compromise between broilers and laying hens and perform better on organic farms with organic feed and husbandry.

The acceptance test of eggs from dual-purpose hens is part of a project with which REWE is gathering practical experience with breeding and breed characteristics, husbandry management and integration into the supply chains for organic eggs and organic meat.
„With this project, REWE is campaigning for a more ethical and ecological poultry industry“Tobias Menig, Chairman of the Management of REWE Südwest
"With this project, REWE is committed to a more ethical and ecological poultry industry," says Tobias Menig, Chairman of the Management Board of REWE Südwest, and explains: "We need a 'dual-purpose chicken' that is adapted to organic farming." The focus is also on the genetic adaptation of the animals to organic farming, for example to the use of regionally and organically produced feed. This in turn supports REWE's overarching goal of strengthening organic farming in Germany.

As an industry pioneer, REWE has already initiated new standards and greater animal welfare in laying hen husbandry on several occasions: For eggs from "Spitz & Bube", both beak trimming in hens and the killing of male chicks were dispensed with for the first time in 2016. this was followed in 2018 by the introduction of "respeggt" eggs with the option of gender identification in the egg. These eggs represent a supply chain in which the hatching eggs are sorted by gender using innovative technology. Only those that contain female chicks for laying are then hatched further. in 2021, well before the legal regulation, REWE had already switched the entire range of shell eggs for its own brands in all farming methods to suppliers that do not kill chicks in laying hen breeding.