GERMANY - The union for the food industry said it is content with last year's performance of its pension fund when compared with others in the market.

The Pensionskasse Ernährung und Genuss (PEG) was founded in 2002 to cover employees in the food industry and had 155,723 members as of year-end 2007.

Contributions grew by 9% on average last year, increasing assets to €860m, while employer contributions via conversion of parts of the salary also increased.

"This is a huge success as supplementary retirement provision has stagnated in Germany over recent years," employer representatives and the union noted.

The fund returned 4.3% in 2007, a "slight increase" compared to the previous year, the union confirmed, but no exact figures were given.

The fund had returned 8% in 2005, of which 4.8% had been used to increase assets while the rest went towards building a buffer.

The PEG is one of the Pensionskassen which is administered under the roof of the Hamburger Pensionsverwaltung, and currently has 600,000 members in total as well as €3.4bn in assets under management.

Other funds under the same roof are the Pensionskasse for workers in trade (PKH) or the Hamburger Pensionskasse von 1905 (HPK).