The UK organic industry is being urged to create a year-round campaign and capitalise on rising sales and increased demand for ‘natural’ and free-from products.
At a Soil Association organic produce forum at Riverford’s Sacrewell Farm this week, a number of delegates claimed that the charity’s Organic September initiative came at a bad time of year for fresh produce availability, and would be better timed either in January, or better, as a year-round campaign that would keep organics in the spotlight for longer.
And that view was backed by Waitrose vegetable buyer Alistair Stone, who called on the industry to seize the day. “We are in a really important part of the organic opportunity for future growth,” he said. “I believe the organics customer is changing. We must treat organics like a premium tier and get people to really want to buy it rather than just thinking they ought to buy it. Marketing is the way to do that, but it’s not really been well-co-ordinated, except in September. We need co-ordinated planning, working with the growers.”
The debate comes as sales of organics are expected to hit their highest-ever rate by the end of the year, passing the previous best of £2.1 billion in 2008. At just 1.5 per cent share of the market though, the UK lags significantly behind other western nations, with organic share in the likes of Germany, the US and Denmark already between seven and 10 per cent.
In the UK, organic fresh produce has seen healthy 8.2 per cent sales growth in the past year [Nielsen], with organic fruit up 16.9 per cent to £124m, veg rising 6.8 per cent to £120m and salad increasing 6.7 per cent to £88m.
Research by England Marketing found that 33 per cent of consumers buy from the free-from category, while 91 per cent of people look for ‘quality’ - defined as organic, British or local. Some 39 per cent of shoppers buy organic weekly.
Stone also suggested that supermarkets should consider treating organics as a standalone, parent category to give it further impetus, though he admitted this would come with its own problems in terms of where to position such a wide variety of products. Waitrose has already trialled standalone organics fixtures, he added.
