REWE Opens Germany's Largest Rooftop Farm in Berlin — SkimNews
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- REWE opened Germany's largest rooftop farm — 2,760 sq metres — atop its Lankwitz, Berlin supermarket last month, selling a blend of head lettuce, romaine, Lollo Rosso, and easy leaf varieties grown metres above the tills.
- ECF, a Berlin agtech firm, designed and runs the hydroponic greenhouse, which draws on rainwater, waste heat from the store's cooling systems, and some solar power, with a grow-to-shelf cycle of just over three weeks.
- REWE and ECF first partnered on a rooftop farm in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim in 2021, selling basil; store manager Felix Thomas said one customer has already driven more than 50 km to buy the new Lankwitz lettuce.
- Nicolas Leschke, ECF's CEO and founder, plans to build at least 20 supermarket rooftop farms over the next decade and at least one in every REWE region within five years, framing the goal as reducing dependence on global supply chains.
- University of Groningen researchers Prajal Pradhan and Stepan Svintsov, authors of a recent European urban-agriculture review, found the continent's cities could produce up to 20 million tonnes of vegetables annually — roughly 28% of demand — though both stress rooftop farms should complement community gardens, not replace them.
Why it matters: For REWE, the Lankwitz site is a commercial proof-of-concept it intends to replicate at 20-plus stores within a decade, betting year-round German-grown salad can displace regional and Italian suppliers on freshness. A peer-reviewed review cited in the piece finds European cities could supply 28% of vegetable demand from in-city production — a ceiling that suggests the model has room to scale far beyond a single grocery chain.
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