Greentrade Healthy development in the global organic market

Healthy development in the global organic market

In 2014, the German organic market rose by 4.8 %. In absolute figures, the sales of food and beverages sold in the German retail trade (including natural food retailing), increased from 7.55 to 7.91 billion EUR. This is the result arrived at by the Arbeitskreis Biomarkt (Organic Market Working Group) based on data from the German market research institutes Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK, Society for Consumer Research), Nielsen, BioVista along with Klaus Braun Kommunikationsberatung. In this context, there was considerably more spent on organic products in the specialist trade (including farm stores): compared with other marketing channels, at + 9 % this group achieved the highest increase (from 2.4 to 2.6 billion EUR). Its share of organic sales increased from 32 % to 33 %. As before, the highest organic sales were however achieved by the conventional retail. In 2014, this was 4.21 billion EUR (2013: 4.06 billion) coupled with a slightly reduced share of the organic market of 52 % (2013: 53 %). In contrast, declines in sales revenue were recorded by other sales channels such as bakers, butchers, weekly markets, smaller farm stores, “Abo-Kisten” (organic products delivery services), mail-order trade, filling stations and health food stores. Here 1.09 billion EUR was spent – this is a sales decline of 0.6 %.


In the first half of 2015, the expenditure by private households on fresh organic products and selected organically processed products (selection criteria not known) increased by 8.4 % compared to the same period in 2014. In the specialist trade, sales within Germany increased over the same period by 10.5 %. This result was established by Kommunikationsberatung Klaus Braun (Speyer, D). The chances of total organic sales clearly exceeding 8 billion EUR in 2015 are good.

USA: marked turnover increase to over 35 billion US Dollars

In the USA, the marketing of organic products through the specialised retail trade along with conventional retail channels has once again been crowned by success. In 2014, the organic market in the United States increased by 11 % and reached a value of 35.9 billion US Dollars (29.5 billion EUR). Compared to 1997, when the Organic Trade Association (OTA) first surveyed US organic sales, the market has increased tenfold. According to further information from the OTA, the organic share of food sales is now almost 5 %. 13 billion US Dollars alone was spent in 2014 on organic fruit and vegetables. 12 % of the entire produce here is already organically based. At +11 %, the dairy products segment was able to achieve remarkable growth. Turnover of 5.4 billion US Dollars was generated through sales of organic milk, yoghurt and co. Currently, the American organic industry is having to contend with a slightly constrained supply situation particularly with regard to organic raw materials.

France: continual growth in the organic sector

In France there is good demand for organic food and the market is experiencing continual growth. Compared to the previous year, sales in 2014 increased by 10 %. 5 billion Euro was accounted for by organic products (compare Germany: 7.8 billion Euro). As a result, France is catching up on the leader Germany. Nine out of ten consumers do at least from time to time choose to purchase organic products, six out of ten nevertheless once a month. In order to keep up with this demand, an increasing number of farmers are switching over to organic. With an increase of 4 %, the volume of organically farmed land exceeded 1.1 million ha, according to the semi-governmental Agentur Agence Bio (Montreuil-Sous-Bois, F). The number of further processors and retailers increased in 2014 to around 13,000 companies, nevertheless 3 % more than in the previous year. The initial data for 2015 shows a positive trend: in the period from 1 January to 17 May 2015, they were joined by 1,659 new producers. This is an increase of 16 % compared to the same period in 2014.

Denmark: organic export champion of Northern Europe

Organic sales turnover in the Nordic countries also developed positively in 2014. However, there is a clear discrepancy in the organic share of the respective food market. While it is already 8 % in Denmark, for bottom-of-the-table country Norway it is just 1.4 %. In Denmark now every fourth carrot and every fourth litre of milk is organic (29 % share of turnover). Denmark is also the country exporting the most organic products, among others, to Germany, Sweden, France and the Netherlands, thus achieving revenue of 204 million EUR in 2014. By 2020 this value is set to once again more than double if the forecasts by sector Association Organic Denmark (Aarhus, DK) are to be believed.

In 2014, the Swedish organic market absolutely exploded. It increased by no less than 38 % and reached a market share of 5.6 %. According to Ekoweb (Lidköping, S), sales at the end of 2014 were around 1.6 billion EUR. “The heaviest demand was for the fruit and vegetables product group”, reports Cecilia Ryegård, editor of a trade publication on organic sales figures in Sweden. “And the best part is: the growth is continuing: In the first six months of 2015 we are expecting an increase of at least 25 %”, she went on to add.

According to details supplied by the Norwegian agricultural authorities, sales in Norway in 2014 reached the equivalent of around 256 million EUR. Despite the low level, the 28 % increase in goods sold in the supermarkets was however considerable.

Switzerland: highest organic per-capita consumption

In 2014, the Swiss organic market increased by 7.5 %. Sales of organic products thus rose to 2.2 billion CHF (around 1.8 billion EUR), the per-capita consumption rose to 269 Franken (2013: 223 EUR). It is the highest in Europe. The share of organic farming land also increased slightly in 2014 and is now at 12.3 %, whereby already one in 5 ha in the mountain regions is organically farmed. The majority of the organic products in Switzerland are sold through two major chains. The market leader is the Coop with a 46.5 % market share of entire organic sales in Switzerland, followed by Migros (27.5 %). The natural food specialist retail accounts for just about 13 %. This is followed by other specialist stores and direct marketers. At + 15 %, Migros has been able to clearly increase its organic sales, but the natural food specialist retail also achieved an increase of 7.4 %.

Great Britain: market slowly recovering

Following years of stagnation in the organic sector, the market has now recovered. In 2014, with growth of 4 %, the organic food sector in the United Kingdom achieved sales of 1.86 billion GBP (2.37 billion EUR).

Trend: more organic in communal catering

In France, in the last seven years, sales of organic products in the commercial/large-scale catering sector increased strongly: they have increased more than fivefold. Now, 2.7 % of procurement for commercial kitchens in the social sector is accounted for by organically produced articles. In 2008, it was just 0.6 %. This corresponds to a financial value of 191 million EUR, which was used in canteens, refractories and other commercial kitchen facilities. In 2014, the increase was 11 %. According to surveys in France, 87 % of respondents stated they were interested in organic food supplies for schools. For years, the greatest endeavours made throughout Europe aimed at achieving this in the public sector have been undertaken by Denmark. There, in 2014, organic products worth a total of 160 mill. EUR were used in the communal catering sector.