Simon Wright

With less money around the organic sector urgently needs to explain to consumers why they should pay more for organic products – as Charles Redfern of Organico says “if we’re selling values, people need to be clear about what those values are” . But where are sales holding up best – brands or own-label? The UK food industry as a whole is currently seeing a move from brands to supermarket own-label as consumers seek to reduce their shopping bills. However the evidence from the organic world is that here the reverse may be happening with organic brands growing at the expense of organic own-label.

That is certainly the experience of Neil Burchell, Managing Director of Rachel’s Dairy. His sales data to the end of December 2008 suggests that in his sector – organic yoghurt and chilled desserts – private label has fallen to 11.4% of the market, as opposed to 13.2% one year previously. His view is that consumers now look for ‘more than organic’. Positioning the Rachel’s brand as a great tasting product that just happens to be organic is paying off in terms of sales growth. Patrick O’Flaherty at RDA Organic soft-drinks is also having a positive experience at present. “Our brands are holding up well with consumers trading up in some areas as they eat out less and so have more disposable income to spend on treats.” Patrick sees opportunities in the current climate as it “offers an opportunity to organic brands that have the integral values of organic at the heart of their philosophy and who can interact with consumers. Own label will not necessarily communicate this ‘passion’ and commitment to the cause and that is why multiples will always want the brand to lead and champion an area to draw consumers into it. Organic consumers are still more likely to buy into brands over own label, but there is a chance that they will ‘trade down’ in these harder times and if the own label meets their expectation there is a chance that they will remain at this level.”

Honeyrose Organic Bakery see both sides of the coin as they offer both branded and own-label organic products. They have been enjoying recent sales success in both independent retailers and supermarkets such as Waitrose. Marketing Director Adrian Apodaca explains the challenge. “We’ve just had one of our largest own-label customers go through a lot of soul-searching about whether they should even put ‘organic’ on their label – their concern was this would scare away consumers which would associate organic with expensive. They finally came to the conclusion, bravely and correctly in our view, that organic is a positive attribute, which they should highlight to their customers, to show them they care enough to give them the best.”.

Some organic sectors are just too complicated for own-label to penetrate effectively. According to Clearspring’s Robin Barlow their range of Japanese products is a good example. “Overall our UK sales have increased by 17% year on year for the period October to December 2008. Clearspring is a trusted brand, which has grown over the years through the knowledge, focus and skills within our team. The relationships that we have with our supply base are unique and cannot easily be replicated under an organic own label offering. Our full range of products is also difficult for an own-label offering to achieve, as rates of sale become more important than offering a comprehensive range of products to the consumer”.

Richard Hampton, Sales and Marketing Director of OMSCo, notes that “some sectors like fresh fruit and vegetables are overwhelmingly own-label and these require a different slant if they are to prosper. In the case of organic milk the dominance of own-label has been driven by category history and the support supermarkets have put into organic milk through increased range and space, taking organic milk to 6% of total supermarket milk sales.” Simon Dunn, Managing Director at The Product Chain, agrees that organic own-label works for fresh fruit and vegetables but doesn’t think it works for much else. In chilled organic fruit juice for example own-label is losing ground to brands. Why ? “Credibility and provenance” according to Simon. Cliff Moss, MD of Healthy Sales & Marketing, adds innovation to this list. “Innovation keeps organic brands one step ahead of me-too products produced for supermarkets, and increasingly for health-food wholesalers.”

Unsurprisingly the supermarkets see things differently. Julian Walker-Palin, Head of Corporate Policy for Sustainability and Ethics at Asda, describes sales of their organic own-label products as ‘resilient’, due in part to Asda now having more AB customers than M&S and Waitrose combined (according to Ed Garner at TNS). Julian acknowledges that organic brands offer ‘familiarity and trust, almost a comfort blanket as the customer embraces nostalgia in times of economic uncertainty.” Both Morrisons and Asda have shown excellent sales growth in organics recently with Asda claiming 25% year-on-year growth, undoubtedly a big part of this is coming from own-label.

Maybe it’s all down to values rather than value. Or maybe it’s both – Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King remarked that customers were looking to maintain their values, but wanted better value. A recent IGD report (Shopper Trends 2009) suggested that organic foods was the only ethical food area where the number of shoppers had fallen year-on-year, from 24% to 19%. Joanne Denny Finch of the IGD believes that this is partly due to a swing towards other ethical options such as Fairtrade and locally-sourced among more casual organic shoppers. Can these casual organic shoppers be brought back into the fold? Only if they understand the benefits that organic can deliver. And organic brands appear better placed than organic own-label to get this message across.

Simon Wright

The Case For The Prosecution

Exhibit A “‘Bland organic’ in danger of becoming just another brand” says a new study from the Open University. The report concludes that the organic sector has fallen into the habit of using ‘bland and ineffectual promotional language’ instead of focussing on the real but more challenging selling points of organic such as the benefits of its environmentally-friendly production methods.

Exhibit B ” ‘Consumers prefer regional foods over organic’ suggests dairy co-operative First Milk. Ten separate focus groups maintained that regional foods are the most important as consumers feel they are helping local producers. First Milk also alleged that many consumers “seem unsure of where organic food comes from”

The Challenges Facing Organics

Many of the challenges facing the organic sector are caused by its enormous success. Annual sales now exceed £2billion  with an annual growth rate of 22% year-on-year. Although these sales only represent 2-3% of total food sales, in terms of influence organics punches well above its weight in leading debates on GM, local food production, provenance, childrens food and now nano-technology.

Certainly sustained market growth is causing problems with ingredient supply. UK farmers are not converting to organic production fast enough to supply rising demand, which means that imports are filing the gap. However those countries such as China and India who have in the past been significant exporters of organic crops can now sell more of their products on their domestic markets. Some agricultural land is being lost to bio fuel production (check out The Archers if you need briefing on this one). Throw in two years of poor harvests (possibly climate-change induced) and you have organic ingredients such as sugar in limited supply for the first time in living memory.

Another problem with rapid market growth is how ‘normal’ organics has become. Reduced/no inputs, full farm to fork traceability, free-range, high animal welfare, ethical sourcing, no artificial ingredients and environmental sustainability – these were the buzz words around organics 10 years ago. Today these terms are mainstream food industry baseline standards. So where is the clear blue water between organics and everything else ?

The Case For The Defence

Organics is unique in offering a joined-up response to the challenge of local sourcing, sustainable food production, human health, animal welfare, food quality and great taste. The challenge is: how do we explain that organics is about all these things  at the same time?  The most popular ‘ethical’ food symbol in the UK is the logo of the Fairtrade Foundation, recognised by 54% of UK adults. However the Fairtrade Foundation is totally single-minded in its communications, always saying that ‘Fairtrade guarantees a better deal for Third World Producers’.  Initial discussions within the Organic Trade Group suggested that a single message for organics would be equally popular. But which message ? Organics represents a wide range of things to a wide range of people and whilst this is less than ideal from a brand-marketing perspective this holistic set of values is integral to the organic offer and reductionism is unlikely to work.

The Way Ahead: Four Things We Can Do

1. Talk To Other People
   Last year it became apparent that at least some organic consumers were unhappy with organic food being imported into the UK by air.  The Soil Association launched a consultation process which consulted widely and actively. By the end of the process the Soil Association understood the issues involved far better, and those consulted respected (but did not necessarily agree) with the proposed Standard.
2. Be Emotional
   Research suggests a new group of younger consumers are buying into organic who are moved as much by emotion as by logic. When people in focus groups start saying “I buy organic because it feels the right thing to do”  we are moving into a very different area that is not dependent upon ‘facts’ .
3. Explain Why Non-Organic Is Too Expensive
   Even after the whole Hugh / Jamie chicken thing Tesco dropping the price of broiler chickens  to £1.99 produced an increase in sales of 140%. Those customers did not care enough about animal welfare, taste, sustainability or the true cost to society of a £1.99 chicken.
4. Stick To Our Guns
   Even Defra now accept that organic food production offers environmental benefits over non-organic. Carlo Leifert’s work at Newcastle University on is demonstrating the nutritional superiority of organic food over non-organic and has prompted a review by the Food Standards Agency. In The Observer Book Of Food, Soil Association Director Patrick Holden writes, “Organic farming will become the predominant farming system in the next 20 or 30 years because we can’t afford to carry on going the way we are. Our current agriculture produces 30% of our CO2 emissions…Organic farming produces half, largely due to the lack of nitrogen fertilizers. When you consider that 2007 looks like being the year for peak oil production, soon we will not be able to send things around the globe as we do now. Sustainable, localised agriculture is the way ahead”.

Simon Wright
O&F Consulting

Lots going on in the run up to Expo East, Baltimore with the Organic Consumers Association (one man and a website, allegedly) accusing organic certifier QAI of helping major organic dairy company Aurora deal with the media fall-out of their being found in violation of the NOP organic regs. Threats and counter-threats followed revealing some ugly fissures in the US organic sector.

I was in Baltimore to deliver a seminar on current developments in the UK / EU organic sector (email me at simon at organicandfair.com if you would like a copy). By the time I got to Baltimore the temperature was 80+, not that you’d have known it from the savagely air-conditioned, totally windowless exhibition centre (why do US health shows always take place in such unhealthy places?).

In addition to countless brands of tea, soft drinks and snack bars on display there was a staggering array of organic cat and dog products. Apparently problems with pet food from China has stimulated US-sourced organic petfood solutions including Pet Promise which bears the endorsement of the inescapable Andrew Weil MD, habitue of daytime TV chatshows. Mr Weil was literally all over the show plugging everything from saucepans to snack bars (the latter very good and produced by Nature’s Path). Strange to see the Rachel’s brand being used on non-organic yoghurt in the US, although it was exceedingly nice yoghurt. Regarding retailers Whole Foods continued to impress, Trader Joe’s were doing well with a predominantly own-label offer whilst fellow travellers Tim Powell (Community) and George Hodin (Planet Organic) were knocked-out by their visit to Wegmans Food Markets.

Hot topic at the receptions and dinners I went to was the growth of local at the possible expense of organics, ie a debate very similar to that lead by Joanna Blythman here in the UK. More fascinating insights into the US Organic Consumer were delivered during a seminar presented by Byron Freney of The Hartman Group. Some juicy nuggets from Hartman’s consumer research included the fact that the term ‘natural’ is now meaningless to consumers and that life stage and life style of organic consumers is more important than their age. In terms of future development Byron claims that organic is becoming a broad quality distinction, so that organics becomes less about objective distinctions and definitions and acquires more of a symbolic value.

Again echoing the UK experience, Byron suggested the US organic sector will need to emphasise the more ‘foodie’ values of local, seasonal and artisanal. His recommendation on building US sales is “simple packaging with impactful narrative of people and place” with narrative to provide “soul” and to “humanise the organic experience”. I could have done with a bit more ‘humanisation’ myself by the time I got back to Heathrow but the Melatonin helped. Next year the show will be in Boston, which will certainly make for a better social scene – they really are rockin’ in Boston! (http://www.myspace.com/simonjcwright for more). And the Expo East experience has got me thinking about some new organic products for the UK market (watch this space…)

Simon Wright
O&F Consulting

On February 19th Blackwell published The Handbook of Organic and Fair Trade Marketing, a book I have edited with my friend Diane McCrea. We started work on the book almost two years ago, but the book seems more relevant now than when we started. The aim of the book is to document the extraordinary success story that is organic and Fairtrade. As Sainsbury’s Group Chief Executive Justin King says in the Foreword “No other sectors within the UK food and drink industry are growing at the rates of organic and fair trade, and no other sectors are experiencing such fundamental shifts in customer buying patterns and attitudes. Organic and fair trade are leaving their niche status behind.” We illustrated just how this shift has been achieved by commissioning industry experts to write about their own experience, including case histories on Clipper, Yeo Valley, Green & Black’s, Abel & Cole, Duchy Originals and Sainsbury’s SO organic . For more information on the Handbook please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/food)

The Handbook also makes some suggestions as to what might happen next. In his chapter on global markets Amarjit Sahota points out that consumer demand for organic and fair trade products is currently concentrated in North America and Europe which together comprise about 97% of global revenues, the other 3% being generated mainly from Japan and Australia. Amarjit ascribes this imbalance to two factors: the prevalence of a substantial middle class and education about the benefits of buying organic and fair trade. As countries such as China and India continue to develop there is no reason why they should not become substantial consumers of the organic and fair trade products they currently export to North America and Europe.

The final chapter by John Bowes and David Croft considers the fascinating question of how organic and fair trade could crossover and converge. They see considerable challenges to both sectors as consumer awareness grows. With regard to corporate behaviour “consumers and the media will ultimately demand much more than token ethics. Their expectations will search out and demand a much more holistic commitment to corporate and social responsibility. The problem for both the Fairtrade Foundation and the Soil Association is that their current schemes cannot match that expectation. The nature and requirement of the current certification and monitoring procedures will limit the extension and growth of the potential for fair trade. The singular focus on the organic ‘gold standard’ will ensure that the Soil Association will remain an important, rather than a major, influence on UK agriculture”

No book that takes two years to produce can claim to be totally up-to-date, and the Handbook is no exception. The issue that the book underplays is the rapid rise of concerns about climate change amongst increasing numbers of citizens in the UK and elsewhere. The pace of change in these sectors hit home to me at the January Soil Association Cardiff conference, The day before the Conference proper the Soil Association Standards Board (of which I am a member) had met and discussed what to do about air freight. There have been mutterings for some time that the Soil Association should refuse to certify any organic food that travels by air. A preliminary briefing paper presented to Standards Board revealed the complexity of the issue. Do we want to discriminate against entirely worthwhile enterprises such as Blue Skies, who employ over 1000 people in Ghana and produce organic cut pineapple ? Because they avoid the use of Modified Atmosphere Packaging the only way that Blue Skies can get their products to the UK market in time is via air freight. And what about the importer of organic salads who is let down by their regular suppliers and faces the choice of bringing in a small amount of product by air or losing his supermarket listing when he is unable to supply ? How does avoiding air freight and losing his precious shelf-space help the organic farmers who supply him? And at a time when the demand for fair trade products is at an all time high should we be making life more difficult for growers in the South who have joint organic and fair trade certified products travelling in the cargo holds of passenger aircraft which would be flying anyway ?

These are complicated issues to which there is no one simple solution. And yet we realise that we must do something as public concern over air freight is growing rapidly. The decision we took and announced in Cardiff was a one year review during which time the Soil Association will produce a Green Paper on the options that exist. Even this decision proved intensely newsworthy and was covered by the BBC, Channel 4 and virtually all major newspapers. Some journalists tried to play the story into “Soil Association bans air freight” but that is not the case (although it makes for a better headline). I do not know where we will get to in a year but I hope that an outright ban will not be necessary – my personal view is that we should be informing citizens via product labels saying ‘imported by sea/air/truck’ and allowing them to make their own decisions. One supermarket told me that the last time they mentioned air freight on their labels it was to promote it as a good thing because products arrived quicker and fresher !

Over the next year there will be much consultation with key stakeholders and you can get involved in this process. Come along to the organic seminars at Natural Products Europe, listen to the arguments and make your views known. The Soil Association are committed to being a transparent and responsive organisation so the more debate we can stimulate in these areas the better. I look forward to seeing you there !

Strengthening The Organic Infrastructure

by Simon Wright

This article originally appeared in the October 2001 edition of Natural Products.

The backlash against the involvement of major companies in organics has started. The current edition of The Food Magazine reveals to a startled public that Enjoy Organics are owned by RHM and that Seeds of Change are owned by Mars ! To which could be added Unilever Bestfoods purchase of Go Organic and the presence of organic lines from Heinz, Arla, Muller and Nestle. Here I must declare an interest as the first part of my career was spent working for major food manufacturers like United Biscuits, Nestle and Unilever. My developing interest in organic food then took me to the Whole Earth / Green & Black’s group, after which I set up The Organic Consultancy to work with both multinationals and much smaller companies. So I’ve worked with big companies and I’ve worked with small companies and at the risk of setting Lady Eve and other organic pioneers spinning I suggest that the continued involvement and support of the major food companies is crucial to the success of organic food. Only major food players can deliver the increase in volume that will allow organic food production to deliver significant environmental benefits.

Consumer research shows how the marketing budgets wielded by major brands are attracting new consumers to the organic sector. However there are other benefits that come from the entry of major players above and beyond the size of their corporate chequebooks as can be seen by a review of three recent problems experienced by organics in the UK.

One example is product safety. Back in 1999 a start-up company called Organic Valley bought a canning factory and secured supermarket listings for its products. However a batch of organic soup was under-cooked and this mistake was not spotted until the cans had been delivered to a major UK supermarket, prompting a full product withdrawal. Consuming under-processed soup is potentially fatal due to the risk of botulism. The resulting tabloid headlines (”Killer Organic Soup !”) would have been disastrous for the entire organic food sector and we would all have suffered as a result. Major food manufacturers have stringent checks and balances, largely as a result of meeting the rigorous standards required to produce own-label products for the UK supermarkets. I have visited small organic producers who manufacture to the highest standards of product quality and safety, but it is much easier to do this with the resources of a major food processor.

Product quality is another area where larger manufacturers frequently have an advantage. All the consumer research I have seen suggests that many consumers expect organic food to taste better than non-organic. Until recently this was not the case with tomato ketchup. The majority of organic tomato ketchup was being processed using the static retorts or hot fill technology used by most small food manufacturers. The limitations of this system result in tomato ketchup that has a brownish colour and tastes overcooked. When Heinz entered the market they were able to utilise their up-to-date (and extremely expensive) technology to deliver an organic tomato ketchup which is less processed, resulting in improved colour and taste. The Heinz product meets consumer expectations of an organic product which is at least as tasty as the non-organic version. Products that consistently deliver on taste are crucial to the continued growth of the organic sector.

A third example is organic fraud. Currently there are at least three major frauds being investigated in France, involving namely Green Negoce, Bio Alliance and Eurograins. The EU organic regulations contain a loophole that makes organic fraud more likely in that traders do not have to be registered with a certifying body. Both the Soil Association and the German government are determined to close this gap. I would argue that larger companies are less likely to be affected by fraud as they have the resources to send their buyers out to foreign countries where organic crops originate. Frequently large companies have their own farms, or at least have direct contact with producers because of the volume of crops they purchase. It is smaller companies who tend to purchase ingredients via intermediaries, thus increasing the risk of fraud. Larger companies also tend to have more robust systems that ensure automatic product traceability and the resources to ensure that these systems are kept fully up to date.

The challenge for the organic sector today is for us to work with large food and drink suppliers as they take their first steps into the organic sector and encourage them to engage with their suppliers and consumers in a fair and ethical way. The continued involvement of the major supermarkets is crucial. The ongoing investment made by supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco in the organic sector has been identified as a major factor behind the current strength of the organic market in the UK. The work done by supermarkets often benefits the entire sector. Examples include Marks & Spencers funding research on organic farms aimed at improving UK organic agriculture, Waitrose financing open days for organic growers and Sainsbury’s promoting IFOAM accreditation. Some supermarkets now understand about supporting UK organic farmers, and regional organic sourcing is next on their agenda.

I still see a continued role for smaller, more specialised organic companies. Companies with well-designed brands such as Free Natural, Lyme Regis Fine Foods and The Organic Spirits Company have a strong future developing innovative quality products that delight and enthuse organic consumers. It is frequently smaller companies who lead the way in new developments – Whole Earth’s adoption of “carbon-neutral” production policies for its organic breakfast cereals and The Village Bakeries use of organic yeast are two good examples. Similarly local shops, local producers, box schemes and Farmers Markets will all remain key players the organic food sector, helping forge direct links between organic consumer and producer. I hope we will see more David & Goliath-type partnerships such as the recently-announced joint distribution deal between Simply Organic and Express Diaries. The strength of such a partnership is that the larger partner learns about organics whilst the smaller partner gains access to new business skills and contacts.

The mainstream food industry loves to talk about partnerships but in the past the benefits from such partnerships have tended to be one-sided. Successful organic food production demands true partnerships between farmer, processor and retailer. My hope is that the large food companies who are now beginning to understand organic production will begin to implement key organic principles such as quality, integrity, respect and traceability across their businesses as an example of best practice. In this way organics can raise standards throughout the entire food industry, a result which we can all welcome.

Organics UK: A Personal Overview

This article first appeared in the September 2000 edition of Natural Products.

When I started working with organic food in 1986 I never believed that the sector would develop so far or so fast. In 1993 UK organic sales were running at 105 million per year at retail : last year they reached 550m, next year the Soil Association expects the sector to exceed 750m. The UK organic sector is currently growing by 40% year-on-year, making it the most dynamic part of the UK food industry. Mainstream supermarkets compete to see who can list the most organic products: specialist organic companies are popping up daily.

Supermarkets currently account for about 69% of all organic food sold in the UK, the remaining sales being split between independent retailers (health-food stores, fine-food stores, organic stores, farm shops, farmers markets) and delivery companies (box schemes). The enthusiasm of UK supermarkets shows no signs of abating and traditional health-food stores run the risk of being squeezed between the competitive pricing and accessibility of supermarkets and the wide product ranges of the new wave of specialist organic retailers such as Planet Organic, Fresh & Wild and As Nature Intended. For now all three of these stores are London only, but the formats could work equally well elsewhere so a national roll-out is likely, giving at least one national organic chain.

The last year has seen the entry of a number of multinationals into the organic sector. First in were Seeds of Change (a subsidiary of Mars), then came Enjoy Organics, a specialist organic company set-up by RHM. Now we have Nestle launching Organic Nescafe, and Heinz selling Organic Baked Beans and Organic Tomato Ketchup. The presence of organic versions of everyday brands represents a considerable challenge to marketeers: how do you promote Organic Nescafe without drawing the attention of consumers to the potential presence of pesticides in non-organic Nescafe ? And will organic consumers trust multinationals who produce a few organic products ? The route followed by Enjoy Organics – a dedicated organic company, with the resources and backing of a larger group- seems to offer the best of both worlds.

I predict that we will move to three groups of organic suppliers:

Volume Producers

These are the large food companies that make own-label products for the UK supermarkets, packing commodities such as sugar, flour, butter and cornflakes. Most such companies are either certified organic producers or have plans to be so.

Champion Brands

These are the companies with organic brands that are heavily promoted and work hard to bring new customers into the organic market – for example Organix Brands, Yeo Valley, Green & Black’s, Libby’s, Seeds of Change, Harmonie, Enjoy Organics. Increasingly these brands are spending millions of pounds to promote their products.

Specialist Producers

Here we find high quality products that add considerable interest to any organic fixture, frequently with an emphasis on regional production. Examples of these companies are The Organic Spirit Company (Juniper Green Organic Gin, UK5 Organic Vodka), Free Natural with their quirky organic sodas and The Village Bakery’s range of craft-baked goods.

One effect of large food manufacturers entering the organic market is to put pressure on the supply of organic ingredients. The Soil Association have estimated that 75% of organic food eaten in the UK is imported: for organic ingredients for further processing I suspect the figure is even higher. The only way for a manufacturer to get all the organic ingredients it needs is to contract with organic farmers many months in advance, rather than relying on the increasingly unreliable organic ’spot’ market. Filling the gap between farmer and manufacturer is a new breed of organic ingredient supplier, notably Tradin BV in Holland and Community Foods in the UK. Organic ingredient sourcing is still a very disjointed process. Trade Organex have spotted a major opportunity that exists for an internet portal that will bring together all the different organic ingredient suppliers – visit www.tradeorganex.com for more details.

With UK organic food manufacturers having to import organic ingredients from all over the world a bottle of organic tomato ketchup can end up containing ingredients from six different countries, each certified as organic by a different certifying body. It is then the responsibility of the UK certifying body to ensure that the finished ketchup reaches their standards. This procedure of establishing organic certification equivalence is proving to be a major challenge to the certification team at the Soil Association. As the market for processed organic products continues to develop the amount of time and resources required to establish organic certification equivalence looks set to grow.

Organic standards continue to develop. EU organic livestock regulations were finally published in 1999 and from August 2000 they have become effective in the UK via the Organic Livestock Regulations developed by UKROFS in consultation with the UK organic certifying bodies. The original EU organic regulations from 1991 have continued to evolve, reflecting market developments both welcome (increased availability of organic ingredients) and unwelcome (the need to protect organic consumers from GM). For the first time the USA will have national organic legislation, easing organic trade between the EU and the USA in both directions. Overall certification bodies such as the Soil Association continue to push organic standards to higher levels, protecting the integrity of the organic offer but making greater demands of their licensees.

The price paid by consumers for organic food looks to be an issue over the next year. The entry of Iceland into the sector has resulted in at least some consumers being given the impression that it is possible to buy organic food at the same price as non-organic. Given that it costs a farmer more to produce an organic crop than a non-organic crop (chemicals are relatively cheap, the labour that replaces them is not) either the organic farmers are getting a bad deal or Iceland are subsidising the offer. For the first year Iceland say they will subsidise organic sales, thereafter…. ASDA responded by promising to undercut other retailers on the selling prices of its organic foods. At a time when focus group work has revealed that UK consumers are happy to pay a modest premium for organic food, taking value out of the sector in this way seems short-sighted. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to cut supply costs of organic foods without reducing the price that organic farmers receive. Increased production volumes help here through economies of scale. In this way we can offer consumers organic food at a price that represents good value for everyone involved.

One thing that is unlikely to change in the coming year is the amount of publicity and media attention that organics receives. However unlike the past not all this coverage is likely to be positive. Recent attacks from the Daily Mail on the safety of organic mushrooms and from the Sunday Times on inconsistent international organic standards could be the first shots in an organic media backlash. Prudent organisations are already getting their responses ready.

One way to deal with these attacks is for us to modify the way we present organic food. Marketing organic food in a negative way has so far been very successful, capitalising on the consumers fear of pesticides, BSE and GM in non-organic food. I do not believe that consumers will stay scared of the mainstream food industry indefinitely. Can we market organic food on a positive basis ? I believe that if we want to ensure organic food is more than a fad the message has to be “Buy organic food because it looks good, it smells wonderful, it tastes great and you are supporting truly sustainable agriculture which will benefit the world you leave to your children, and to their children”. In this way the UK organic sector can continue to prosper, and everyone can benefit.

Copyright Simon Wright, August 2000.