Soil Association Certification’s latest Organic Market Report gives many reasons for optimism
Sales of organic products have seen strong growth in the past year, with increased sales across all key channels.
That was the headline takeaway from Soil Association Certification’s Organic Market Report 2025, which revealed that the UK organic market has doubled in a decade to reach sales of £3.7bn.
The organic body reported that sales increased across every key channel, with the major multiples, independent retailers, non-food and hospitality all enjoying a particularly strong year.
Sales of organic in major retailers are now worth £2.43bn, a rise of 8 per cent, with unit sales of organic growing four times more than non-organic food and drink at 4.7 per cent.
Soil Association Certification commercial and marketing director Georgia Phillips said: “The organic market delivered abundant growth across the board last year, out-performing non-organic in both volume and value growth – a key indicator of the health and potential of the market as we look to the future.
“We saw strong growth in all food and drink channels and product categories with outstanding performance in the multiples, independents and home delivery. And the signs are strong that this growth is here to stay with increasing consumer demand, particularly from Gen Z shoppers who are increasingly motivated by healthy and sustainable choices and seeking out organic products.”
However, Phillips warned that there are still some significant barriers to overcome to see UK organic market share scale as it has done in other European countries, where government and retailer support have been a catalyst for rapid organic growth.
“That’s why we have joined forces with leading nature and environmental NGOs to make the case for a 10 per cent government target for land to be farmed organically – which will support a rapid transition with new financial opportunities for farmers and realise the significant health, nature and environmental benefits for the UK,” she said.
Suppliers upbeat over sales picture
Research by Soil Association Certification in its Organic Market Survey found that half (50 per cent) of respondents reported a positive year for both volume and value sales, with a fifth (20 per cent) enjoying a significant sales increase.
The organic dairy and produce categories continue to have the highest share of organic sales, accounting for almost half (49 per cent) of all organic sales made through major retail.
Fyffe’s CEO John Hopkins said: “We have seen strong growth in our sales of organic bananas in 2024, driven by a growing customer demand and supported by retailer availability and promotional activity. Approximately 11 per cent of all of our banana sales are organic and Fairtrade, meeting a growing consumer need for assurances around health, sustainability and supply chain fairness.”
RB Organics managing director Joe Rolfe added: “We’ve seen growth of organic vegetable sales across all of our retail customers. It is pleasing to see that there is a renewed retailer interest in Organic September and many retailers remain committed to driving organic growth. For us, ensuring consistent levels of supply for on-shelf availability, planned promotional activity and working closely with our customers has been key to directing more people to purchasing organic veg.”
Growth in other channels
Mirroring the growth in the supermarkets, other channels saw strong performances too. The independent retail channel rose 9 per cent to top £518mn, fuelled by customers seeking a unique in-store experience, quality products and access to more local food.
Online continues to be a strong performer, with organic twice as likely to be shopped digitally through the grocery multiples, and retailers like Ocado overindexing on organic. Home delivery, which has always been an important channel for organic sales – making up 15 per cent of the market – is now back in growth, seeing a 3 per cent uplift.
After a difficult couple of years, foodservice saw a 6.5 per cent sales increase, largely thanks to a fall in inflation.
Gen Z seek organic
New research from the Organic Research Centre and UK Organic shows that 67 per cent of consumers “intentionally” buy organic, with younger (under-24), lower and middle-income households the most active organic shoppers.
This indicates that lower-income shoppers display higher rates of purchasing organic products consistently in multiple product categories, the organic body said. Also, they’re more likely to buy organic products on special occasions and a higher proportion of low-income shoppers said that they “always bought organic” in at least four product categories.
Data from veg box specialists Locavore shows that 28 per cent of its shoppers have an annual household income of under £30,000 and half of those were under £20,000.
Organic farmland concerns
Despite the positive growth, there’s still a widening gap between the organic market and organic production in England, with a heavy reliance on imports. Organic farmland has remained static for another year, and the percentage of organic land share has largely halted in England, representing just 3 per cent of the country’s farmed area.
Although government figures for organic farmland in 2024 have not yet been published, data relating to land certified by Soil Association Certification gives cause for optimism that organic farming is on the rise, with land in transition to organic almost doubling last year.
Phillips said: “We have already seen promising signs as the land in conversion with the Soil Association Certification has doubled since January 2024 as government and shoppers invest in organic. That’s welcome news and real signs of progress after government figures for 2023 showed that the percentage of organic land share had remained static at around 3 per cent in England for the last decade.”
