Bostock New Zealand’s international trader, Jane Maclean, says Asia’s organic awakening has hit the mainstream.
After airfreighting just a handful of pallets of organic apples to Singapore in 2007, Bostock now has well established sales programmes in eight Asia markets, with its clients servicing a wide range of retail segments.
“Traditionally, Asian consumers have bought organic certified products from specialist organic shops but we are now starting to see a push from mainstream retailers across Asia to increase organic dedicated shelf space and widen their organic product range availability across all grocery lines,” Maclean explained.
After several high profile food scares in Asia over recent years, coupled with a growing conscious about the value of leading a healthy lifestyle, Maclean anticipates demand for organic produce will continue to grow.
“Parents are doing their research on what is best for their children and are seeking out organic products as an added assurance of health and food safety,” Maclean said. “Disease and diet related illnesses are on the rise and customers are also looking to organic as a way of either combating or preventing these illnesses.”
However, Maclean said more education is needed on the benefits of organic produce to continue increasing sales in mainstream channels.
“There is a lot of confusion and distrust from consumers around ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ labelling on both domestic and imported goods in Asia markets,” she noted.“Too many companies are liberally using the words natural or organic on questionable products.”
