Organic food could increase its market share from just a few per cent to 30 per cent if it could convey to consumers that it stood for more than pesticide-free production.

Addressing the Soil Association horticulture symposium ‘Redefining quality’ at HDRA’s Ryton Gardens, Coventry, last week, organics champion and grower Peter Segger said there was no one single consumer of organics “although it suits a lot of organic marketing people to think so.

“Organic agriculture has a huge range of values we don’t communicate very well,” he said. “It’s not just about being chemical-free.”

Such values included taste, fair trade - a market sector currently growing at 40 per cent a year - local food, and benefits to wildlife. “Do the millions of people belonging to the RSPB recognise the importance of organic production to bird life?” Segger asked. Even steps by the Evangelical movement in the US to observe “care and concern for Creation” in more practical ways could have implications for the organic market, he said.

Waitrose technical manager Alan Wilson said taste was the main reason why the supermarket’s customers chose organic food over conventionally produced. “It is the success of organic food that has helped us improve the taste of conventional produce,” he said. Organic carrots, potatoes, apples and pears consistently scored highly for taste although it was more difficult to achieve in salad crops such as tomatoes and lettuce.

A Soil Association survey released last week suggests that how food tastes is now more important to shoppers than price.

Of 1,000 people who were asked what attributes of food were important when buying for a meal to serve to family and friends, 95 per cent rated quality and taste higher than price compared to 57 per cent who said price mattered most. The results were similar across different income groups. How food was produced, such as by methods that encouraged wildlife and avoiding food grown with pesticides, was also ranked more highly than price.

Soil Association food and farming director Helen Browning said the results explained why sales of organic food were growing more rapidly than in any other sector.

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