Organic food market

Jodie Humphries

Back in July, it was said that organic food is no healthier than ordinary food, so how has the organic food market fared since the report, which was commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, came out?

In the past year the organic food market has taken a battering. The report in which researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that there was no differences in most nutrients in organically or conventionally grown crops, including in vitamin C, calcium, and iron, had a huge effect on the market. With the same being true for studies looking at meat, dairy and eggs.

During the recession, people have been abandoning organic food in order to save money. Back in September, sales of organic vegetables were down 19 percent, and sales of organic wine and bread sales had fallen to just half of what they were a year ago.

Sales of organic food in the UK had been performing remarkably well until the recession. The Soil Association's Organic Market Report 2009 showed that sales within the organic food market grew by only 1.7 percent in 2008, following more than a decade of sustained growth in this area. This modest level of growth is in sharp contrast to the 22 percent increase in sales reported in the Soil Association's previous report, in 2007. In 2008, British consumers spent more than GBP£2.1 billion on organic food, compared with just under GBP£2 billion in 2006, the BBC state in the section of their website dedicated to organic food.

According to research by IGD, an independent organisation representing grocery distributors, the proportion of UK shoppers who say they buy organic food in 2009 has dropped to 19 percent from 24 percent in 2008.

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Yet despite the news that the organic food market was suffering during the recession a few months ago, comes the news from the British paper The Telegraph, that sales are improving.

Organic food and other green goods are selling surprisingly well, despite the recession, it seems. Supermarket sales of environmentally sustainable or ‘ethical' products are set to rise by 8.7 percent to nearly US$38 billion this year, says a new study by a market research company, Packaged Facts.

Even more surprising, is that organic food is booming in Eastern Europe. In Poland almost every supermarket sells it, while the sales of an organic online shop more than doubled in a year. In Romania sales of the pesticide-free produce in the first half of this year were more than 15 times higher than in the equivalent period in 2008 in 21 supermarkets owned by the French chain Carrefour. And in Hungary weekly organic markets are being held all over the country.

Organic farming in the UK

More farmers have been converting to organic, a process which can take three years. In January 2007, there were 4639 organic producers in the UK, representing an annual increase of seven percent. Organic holdings represented approximately 3.9 percent of all farms in the UK. However, since the recession, many farmers are finding organic farming to be increasingly difficult in the face of increased costs. In 2008, the total number of organic farms had risen to 4955, a slightly lower rate of increase compared to the previous year.

Five years ago 70 percent of the organic food bought in the UK was imported. Now imports account for only 30 percent of the organic market and much of that is exotic produce such as chocolate, bananas, tea and coffee, which can't be grown in the UK. Organic vegetable box schemes have been an important driver of organic food's success in the UK.

Cost

Crops grown organically are more vulnerable to pests and disease. It is also more labour intensive and farmers pay more for organic animal feed. Because organic food costs more to produce, it's more expensive for consumers to buy.

Organic products typically cost 10 to 40 percent more than similar conventionally produced products.

Currently it depends on the person whether or not the food tastes better if its organic, some believe it does taste better, so will pay the extra to go organic. While other just believe it's all a hype. The organic food market will continue to split generations it seems.