Organic September, a month-long UK-wide celebration of organic products that calls for a sustainable, planet-centric approach to production, is gearing up for its new campaign.
Soil Association Certification has been working with the Organic Trade Board, along with many brands and retailers, to bring a single-focus campaign to all organic businesses this year.
'Citizens are shopping in new and different ways, with many choosing to stick with their new choices of box schemes, online and independents and many having made conscious choices to buy more sustainably,' the campaign announced. 'This shift means now, more than ever, is the time to be championing the organic sector.'
Recent data from Nielsen showed that in the 52 weeks to the end of May 2020, organic food and drink sales grew by 6.1 per cent, almost double the growth of non-organic food and drink products (3.2 per cent).
In the 12 weeks to the end of May 2020, which included ten weeks of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Nielsen data showed an 18.7 per cent increase in organic sales, compared with a 14.2 per cent rise in non-organic food and drink sales.
Clare McDermott, business development director at Soil Association Certification, commented: “I am really excited about this year’s Organic September campaign, which is bringing a unified and simple message: nature has the answer. With consumer habits shifting and people prioritising choices that are good for the environment and biodiversity, the time is now to move organic forward as a movement and get the message out there that a small swap can make a big difference. We feel confident that retailers, producers and farmers alike will get behind the campaign and we encourage them to make use of the brilliant resources that my team and I have been developing.”
The campaign will reportedly see a range of resources available to Soil Association licensees, producers and retailers, including digital toolkits, online content and collateral displays with simple messages such as ‘Nature has the answer’ and ‘Small swap, big difference’.
According to Soil Association Certification, independent retailers that sign up to the campaign will benefit from point-of-sale packs and free wildflower seeds to hand out to customers on Organic September Saturday.
'Alongside that,' the campaign revealed, 'Soil Association Certification will be hosting webinars, virtual pop-ups and promoting listings pages which have seen record traffic over the past few months as people look for box schemes, their local independent shops and where to find organic products from beauty, food or fashion.'
