Edeka has inaugurated a cutting-edge fruit warehouse in the Port of Hamburg, refining fruits and vegetables from Ecuador, Colombia, and Costa Rica. This milestone comes after years of contention with city authorities. The tropical fruits, including bananas, arrive by pallet at Dessauer Straße in the port, having been kept dormant at sea to halt the ripening process. At Edeka's new Fruchtkontor, the bananas are revived, ripened slowly at 12 to 13 degrees in extraordinary chambers, and then distributed to retail locations across Germany. The warehouse on a 37,000-square-meter plot on Kleiner Grasbrook is Europe's most modern fruit and vegetable facility. It serves as Edeka's primary distribution centre for bananas, supplying over 11,000 retailers. The facility also packages mangoes and avocados, with 50 ripening chambers, a packing station, and an administration block. Edeka invested 60 million euros in this project. The investment, delayed for years, was finally realized after overcoming political hurdles. Edeka had long operated a Fruchtkontor on Kleiner Grasbrook but needed more space to double its annual goods turnover. The Olympic bid and subsequent plans for housing development further complicated matters. An agreement between the port industry and the mayor allowed the project to proceed, costing taxpayers 120 million euros for relocations and constructing a multi-storey car park. This enabled the Fruchtkontor to expand, eliminating space-intensive parking at Unikai.

The new facility employs 180 people and handles around 2.8 million cartons of bananas and other tropical fruits annually. The Hamburg Port Authority's managing director, Jens Meier, highlighted the port's significance for Germany.

Mayor Peter Tschentscher praised Edeka's commitment to the port. He described the Fruchtkontor as a "leap into a new era" due to its sustainable design, which includes a photovoltaic system and modern charging infrastructure for e-mobility.

Edeka sources its goods directly from 1,200 growers, ensuring sustainable production. The new warehouse has been operational since October 20, 2024, and Edeka continues to be a leading retailer in Germany, with significant sales and a large workforce.