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Company Profile: Rapunzel Naturkost GmbH

Rapunzel Naturkost is one of Europe’s leading organic producers. It all started on a very small scale: In 1974, Joseph Wilhelm and Jennifer Vermeulen founded a self-sufficient community on a farm with a small natural foods store in Augsburg, Bavaria.
Over the course of the company’s more than 35-year history, this has evolved into an internationally active company with 300 employees.
The idea has always remained the same: to produce certified organic, natural, and vegetarian foods.

The Rapunzel Product Range

Rapunzel’s earliest products were nut butters, dried fruits, and muesli. Today, the product line includes approximately 550 items. In addition, products such as pasta, cooking oils, chocolates, and coffee are now part of the core product line. Half of these products are manufactured or processed in Legau in the Allgäu region.

Products of the Highest Organic Quality

Product quality is Rapunzel’s top priority. The quality assurance team therefore plays a key role within the company. Inspections of raw materials begin right in the field. Upon receipt, all raw materials and products are sampled. They are also independently analyzed by accredited external laboratories.

Just as in the beginning, Rapunzel continues to place great importance on personal relationships with suppliers and long-term partnerships. On-site visits, consultation with the company’s own agricultural engineers, and active dialogue ensure the impeccable quality of the raw materials. This creates transparency—from the field to the consumer’s plate.

Rapunzel’s Largest Cultivation Project: Organic Farming in Turkey

As an organic pioneer, Rapunzel has been committed to promoting organic farming from the very beginning. This groundwork has led to the development of its own cultivation projects in Turkey and around the world.

The Turkey project, founded in 1985, is Rapunzel’s largest and longest-running project. Today, approximately 600 farmers from ten provinces grow 14 different products for Rapunzel there—including figs, apricots, sultanas, hazelnuts, pine nuts, and tomatoes.

Guaranteed Fair Trade: The “HAND IN HAND” Program

Social justice, fair prices, and security for raw material suppliers: Rapunzel is committed to these principles in all its projects worldwide.

That is why, in the early 1990s, the company launched its own fair trade program called HAND IN HAND. This proprietary seal stands for fair trade and organic farming in so-called developing countries. This means, for example, that coconut chips from Sri Lanka, coffee from Tanzania, and cocoa from Bolivia are guaranteed to be fairly traded.

Rapunzel’s Commitment Beyond the Product

For Rapunzel, promoting organic agriculture involves not only project work but also political engagement—for example, advocating for fair growing and trading conditions or a GMO-free future. In addition, Rapunzel offers a wide-ranging program of lectures and events centered on culture, nutrition, and ecology.

Rapunzel’s ideals and goals from over 35 years ago have remained the same—only the scale has grown. Today, Rapunzel summarizes its corporate philosophy under the motto “We make organic out of love.”