Overview
- REWE opened the Lankwitz supermarket this week and installed a nearly 3,000 square metre transparent rooftop farm operated by Berlin firm ECF Farmsystems.
- ECF says the automated hydroponic system floods special trays with nutrient solution several times a day and will start production in summer with a target of up to 900,000 salad mixes per year.
- Daily harvests will be processed and packaged inside the store for local sale or distribution, and REWE expects the roof output to supply about 500 supermarkets in the Berlin metropolitan area.
- The market is built mostly from visible, modular timber that can be disassembled for reuse, and the rooftop system uses store waste heat, a heat pump and captured rainwater to support growth.
- REWE stocks roughly 2,150 m² of sales space with more than 20,000 items including 20 regional suppliers, and the company says it plans to replicate the timber-built, regionally focused format elsewhere in Germany.