The Organic Market Contracts

The recently published Soil Association Organic Market Report tells us that the organic market has had a tough time.  Not a revelation for those involved in the sector as we are all finding times tough, but it is good to have some figures that back our hunches.

The scale of the decline in the bakery area was a surprise but as bakery is a late adoption product for organic consumers it should be no surprise it is one they drop quickly.  But why such a rapid decline?  Many "premium" conventional bakery or breakfast cereal products are similarly priced to organic equivalents so are these products also seeing significant declines?

Consumers do not have a "halfway house" for bakery products as they do for other foods (such as choosing a free-range chicken or pork product as an alternative to organic) and we assume they have not dropped organic for standard conventional ranges it seems they have moved away from organic without a significant (if any) price justification for doing so.

Therefore we in the organic sector have not done enough to show shoppers where the benefits of buying an organic bakery product lies.  We have not explained the biodiversity benefits organic grain production provides, the lower agrochemical pollution of watercourses that are inherent in organic systems.

We have hidden our light under a bushel and the merits of our organic products have been lost on the consumer and so in a time when they are told that organic is expensive and they should be seeking cheaper, rather than better, they have meekly agreed and gone back to conventional alternatives.

We cannot expect the existing bakers, or breakfast cereal producers to communicate to consumers for us as most of them are selling conventional products too.  A company which deals in both organic and conventional products does not worry whether it sells its organic range or its conventional one it makes a margin on both.  If it loses a sale to a rival brand it will act: if consumers move between its organic and conventional products it won't.

Within the organic sector we must learn from the lessons of this downturn and take more responsibility for ensuring that consumers truly understand the benefits of the organic products they are buying. By giving consumers strong clear messages about the benefits of organic products we will make them more resistant to changing their buying habits when perceptions are challenged as they have been recently.

Growing Organic Agriculture from Eastern Europe to Central Asia

Could UK organic grain production be set to come under further pressure from imports from low-cost production areas?  A meeting 14th April 2010 in Moldova will seek to promote organic production in Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia.

A previous report produced in 2007 concluded that "the region’s low use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and its availability of workers presented good prospects for the growth and export of organic food products to Western Europe".  Given the current poor infrastructure and so transport it is likely to be non-perishable products such as combinable crops that will be produced for the export market.

The import of organic grain covers a lack of domestic production however it is cannot continue be the longer term strategy for the organic sector in the UK as it is not desirable other than as an interim measure whilst domestic supply develops. 

Imported grain has a greater reliance upon finite resources than the use of domestic production due to the greater haulage, shipping and handling involved.

Organic Arable farming provides significant biodiversity benefits to the UK landscape and by importing grain we are effectively exporting these benefits.  It should clearly established that any increase in organic production is undertaken through the proper conversion of existing agricultural land and not the destruction of natural or semi-natural grasslands.  Because such areas have not been farmed and have not had agrochemicals applied should not mean they are suitable for immediate entry into an organic certification process.  

Organic farming systems in the UK are based upon a broader philosophy that the simple exclusion of agrochemicals and it is vital that these principles are upheld in any expansion of organic production proposed by these meetings.  If the products of these systems are to enter the EU market they should be fully equivalent to the EU regulation and adequately certified to maintain the integrity of our certification in the UK.

Do consumers really know about or support the importation of grain?  Should we in the organic sector not be seeking to localise food supply chains and move the point of production as close to the consumer as possible?

-- Press Releases April 2010 - Growing Organic Agriculture from Eastern Europe to Central Asia - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) --

New EU Organic Logo

After all the debate, competitions and polls we now know what the new EU organic logo will look like and our friends at Organic Farmers and Growers have produced this very useful guidance on using the logo.  As producers it is perhaps of passing rather than immediate interest but we can expect to start seeing it on our breakfast tables soon as it starts to appear on boxes of cereal and bottle of milk. New EU Organic Logo Labelling Guidance