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.
