Rapunzel Naturkost
Rapunzel Naturkost is a GmbH founded in 1974 that produces and sells vegetarian organic food. The company has its headquarters in Legau in Unterallgäu.[3]
 | |
| Type | GmbH[1] |
|---|---|
| Industry | Agricultural production and sales |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Joseph Wilhelm, Margit Epple, Leonhard Wilhelm[1] |
| Revenue | ca. 185 Million Euro (2016)[2] |
Number of employees | 350 (2016)[2] |
| Website | www.rapunzel.de |
History
In 1974 Joseph Wilhelm and Jennifer Vermeulen founded the company with start-up capital of DM 3,000. They rented a farm to grow and sell organic food. In 1975 a natural food store was opened in Katherinengasse in Augsburg. The first own products included muesli, nut butters, and fruit slices.
The company has been committed to promoting organic agriculture since it was founded. The Turkey Project, founded in 1985, is the company's largest and longest-running project. Today around 600 farmers from 14 provinces grow 37 different products for the company there - including figs, apricots, sultanas, hazelnuts, almonds, sesame and olives. [4]
The company also advertises its raw material suppliers using principles such as social justice, fair prices and safety. Therefore, the company established its own fair trade program called early 1990s hand in hand to the fair trade and to promote organic agriculture in the so-called developing countries. [5] Today, 18 regional organizations from Egypt, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, India, Paraguay, Peru, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania from the program. Together with Deutsche Umwelthilfe, the company set up a hand-in-hand fund in 1998 in order to enable smaller on-site initiatives to help themselves to help themselves in an unbureaucratic manner. So far, 259 projects in 55 countries have been supported with a total of € 1.13 million (July 2016). [6]
Development
year event
- 1974 Renting a farm in Pestenacker [7]
- 1975 Foundation and opening of an organic shop in Augsburg [8]
- 1976 First contacts with farmers from Italy and Turkey. Relocation to Tegernbach [8]
- 1977 First nationwide delivery of the products [9]
- 1979 Relocation to Kimratshofen in the Oberallgäu district [8]
- 1980 First cultivation projects in other European countries [10]
- 1985 Purchase of the former milk factory in Legau and conversion [9]
- 1987 Production of the world's first organic chocolate [11]
- 1990 Launch of the product Samba [12]
- 1992 Registration of the hand-in-hand logo as a trademark [13]
- 1997 Foundation of the Turkish subsidiary [14]
- 1998 Establishment of the hand-in-hand fund [15]
- 2003 Construction of a logistics center in Bad Grönenbach [9]
- 2004 Recognition as a Demeter manufacturer [16]
- 2007 GM-free walking - 1st march for a GM-free world from Lübeck to Lindau [17] and installation of a photovoltaic system [18]
- 2008 1. One World Award [19]
- 2009 GM-free walking - 2nd march for a GM-free world from Berlin to Brussels [20]
- 2010 2. One World Award [21] and opening of the Rapunzel Museum [22]
- 2011 Right2Know-March from New York to Washington - 3rd March for a GMO-Free World to Mobilize a Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods in the USA [23]
- 2012 3. One World Award [24]
- 2014 4. One World Award and One World Festival on the occasion of the 40th company anniversary [25]
- 2017 5. One World Award [26]
- 2017 Takeover of Zwergenwiese Naturkost GmbH, Silberstedt / Schleswig-Holstein [27]
One World Award
Since 2008 [28] the company and the International Umbrella Association for Organic Agriculture (IFOAM) have been giving the One World Award for "people and their projects who, in the spirit of positive globalization, are innovative and committed to making this world a better world". [28] The prize money totaled 45,000 EUR in 2017 [29] and went to different amounts:
- Prime Minister Shri Pawan Chamling and the organic movement of the state of Sikkim / India
- United World Colleges (UWC) with its institutions in Freiburg / Germany and Pune / India
- Nasser Abufarha / Palestine, pioneer for fair trade and organic agriculture in the Middle East
- Amin Babayev / Azerbaijan, soil scientist and founding father of the organic movement in his country
- The organic and fair trade pioneer Shamiso Mungwashu / Zimbabwe
The prize money is provided by Rapunzel. [30]
Commitment to organic seeds
Rapunzel Naturkost supports the basic work of organic seed breeders so that organic producers can use solid organic seeds in the future. The company has been working with the Swiss seed breeder Sativa for several years. This collaboration resulted in the organic tomato variety "Mauro Rosso", which has been officially approved by the Federal Office of Varieties since December 4, 2014. In addition, the company supports the Organic Sunflower Seed Initiative (IBS) with several other organic companies. The aim of the initiative is to breed organic high oleic (HO) sunflower varieties. [31]
The seeds festival, which the company since 2012 Legau organized, informed on the subject and also offers the possibility of seed solid organic seeds to acquire the seed stock market or exchange. [32]
Product features
- First organic chocolate, 1987 [9]
- Nut butter, since 1976 [33]
- Legumes from Europe since 2016 [34]
- Emmer pasta since 2016 [35]
Criticism
The SWR broadcast Report Mainz criticized the company in 2010 for using organic palm oil, which was obtained on plantations in Colombia, because the local population was being forcibly relocated and forests were being cleared. [36] [37] The credibility of the SWR report was later questioned. [38] In October 2010, the which has been criticized Daabon Group, whose client was also Rapunzel Naturkost, withdrew from the affected area. [39] As a consequence, Rapunzel Naturkost only processes fair trade organic palm oil. [40] [41] At the palm oil check of the WWFIn 2017, Rapunzel Naturkost took second place out of 255 companies surveyed. [42]
The subsidiary Zwergenwiese received the golden cream puff in 2019 for a children's tomato sauce with an increased sugar content. [43]
In 2020, the company came under brief criticism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other things, the vegan chef Attila Hildmann held onto for a long time, during which he often made a name for himself as a conspiracy theorist in the media. This statement was corrected by the company: The collaboration was limited to 5 years and ended in 2015. [44]
Even Joseph Wilhelm, the company's founder and CEO, has been criticized for its regularly published on the company's weekly reports. He described the prescribed mouth and nose protectionin numerous public areas as "muzzles". This was followed by statements that death would occur one way or another in people and that many older people, who were particularly at risk in the pandemic, would "expect and sometimes even long for the transition to the spiritual world as something completely natural". Others should respect this decision and younger ones should not patronize the elderly. Wilhelm also claimed that a healthy lifestyle and diet was the best protection against infectious diseases. A few days later, these statements were offline. [45] [46] [47]
Rapunzel Tower
On the occasion of the company's 40th anniversary, the Rapunzelturm was built on the company premises in 2014 as a new landmark, [48] an approximately 20- meter- high observation tower which, after climbing its 90 steps, offers a clear view of the Allgäu Alps. [49]