Typisch bremisch Typically “Bremish”

Coffee worth 1.6 billion Euro
The food industry also plays a very important role for
Bremen, benefiting from the location between the agri -
cultural strongholds of Northwest Germany and the North
Sea with its ports and fishing fleets. There’s a nearly 100
percent probability of finding a product from the two-city
state in German kitchens. The chances are similarly good
that it will be really tasty too, as Bremen is home to par -
ticularly first-rate brands. These include for example Beck’s,
Milka, Kellogg’s, Miracoli, Philadelphia, Nordsee, Milram,
Frosta and Hachez. Furthermore, the state offers special
expertise when it comes to coffee: around 600,000 tonnes
are imported through Bremen’s ports every year, more
than through all other ports, at a value of 1.6 billion Euro.
The raw coffee is supplied for well-known brands such as
Azul, Eduscho, Jacobs, Melitta and Onko.
The industrial sector with its supporting pillars of mecha n -
ical engineering and metal processing depends is highly
dependent on the port and its logistics. This is clearly
revealed by another statistic: in 2012, Bremen had the
highest export quota (share of foreign turnover in total
turn over) among the federal states with 64.3 percent,
exporting goods with a per capita value of around 27,000
Euro. Hamburg came in second place with a far lower
export quota of 51.3 percent.
Logistics: robots do the hard work
fierce in this sector so that the companies are constantly
introducing innovations to keep just that little bit further
ahead. In doing so, they are supported among others by
the outstanding research facilities in Germany’s “City of
Science 2005”. For example, the Bremen Institute for Production
and Logistics (BIBA) attracted worldwide attention
with the development of a parcel robot. It unloads a truck
automatically by recognising different shapes of boxes,
grasping them securely and then placing them in the
required position, for example on a conveyor belt. As well
as boosting efficiency, the most important advantage of
this invention consists in its health and safety aspects,
alleviating the extreme long-term burden on the worker’s
back from lifting heavy parcels.
The individual companies are also extremely inventive.
One international flagship is dbh Logistics IT AG which has
presented its solutions to numerous visiting delegations
from other countries. It was founded in the early 1970s by
around 40 firms involved in the port to provide a uniform
information system to Bremen’s ports, called “Bremer
Hafentelematik” (Bremen’s port telematics). This was the
first system of its kind worldwide. Since then dbh has
enjoyed continuous growth. Meanwhile it operates a
state-of-the-art computing centre at the company headquarters
in the city centre and offers numerous other
products, for example for paperless customs clearance of
goods. Offices have been opened at five other German
locations to deal with national demand.
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In recent years, the transformation of the whole transport
sector has been as rapid as in many other branches of
industry, even if it is still primarily the trucks and container
ships that can be seen. Global competition is particularly
But the port has always played a pioneering role in the
development of new technologies and business pro -
cesses. Way back in May 1966, Bremen became Germany’s
first container port with the rapid spread in standardised
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