Berlin Supermarket Takes Local Sourcing To New Heights With Rooftop Salad Farm

A Berlin supermarket is growing salad just metres above the shelves where it is sold, in a striking example of how urban agriculture could shorten fresh produce supply chains.

The REWE Green Farming store in Lankwitz is topped by a 2,760 sq m glasshouse which REWE describes as Germany’s largest rooftop farm.

Its “Lankwitz loose-leaf lettuce” is grown hydroponically in an almost soil-free, largely automated system. The salad mix initially combines Batavia, green romaine, Lollo Rosso and dark green Easy Leaf varieties.

The plants travel through the glasshouse on specially designed trays and are supplied several times a day with a nutrient solution. Rainwater collected in a rooftop storage tank is used for irrigation, while waste heat from the supermarket, a heat pump and solar energy help support the operation.

Each growing cycle takes 23 days. Following the daily harvest, the leaves are processed and packed inside the supermarket before being sold in the store or distributed to other REWE outlets across eastern Germany.

The rooftop operation was developed and is managed by Berlin-based agricultural technology company ECF Farmsystems, while REWE provides the site and retail distribution network.

Once operating at full capacity, the farm could produce as many as 900,000 bags of mixed salad annually and supply around 500 REWE stores. REWE estimates that the model could eliminate approximately 500,000 transport kilometres compared with sourcing imported produce from southern Europe.

Four employees look after the glasshouse seven days a week, with harvesting taking place on six days. Customers can see the growing area through skylights inside the supermarket, although the production rooms are not open to the public.

The rooftop farm opened in August, several months after the supermarket began trading in May. It follows an earlier REWE and ECF Green Farming project in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, which opened in 2021 and produces basil.

Store operator Felix Thomas told The Guardian that the rooftop-grown salad had already become a point of difference for the business, with one customer travelling more than 50km to buy a bag.

The concept comes as researchers examine the wider potential for food production within European cities. A 2026 study covering 840 cities in 30 countries estimated that urban agriculture could produce up to 19.8 million tonnes of vegetables a year and meet approximately 28% of demand for 190 million Europeans.

However, the research assessed low-technology, open-air and soil-based cultivation rather than hydroponic systems such as REWE’s rooftop glasshouse. Its authors also stressed that urban farming should complement established food production rather than replace conventional agriculture.

ECF founder and chief executive Nicolas Leschke told The Guardian that he hopes to develop at least 20 supermarket rooftop farms during the next decade, including at least one in every REWE region within five years.

Details of the Berlin project were confirmed in REWE’s official announcement.