Key Findings of Soil Association 2014 Organic Market Report
Steady Growth:
- Sales of organic products in the UK grew by 2.8% in 2013.
- The UK organic market is now worth £1.79billion in sales.
- The rate of growth was above the annual inflation rate of 2%.
- Growth has been particularly strong in the dairy sector (+4.4%): organic milk sales grew by 5% and yoghurt sales by 7%.
- Sales of organic vegetables increased by 3.4%, while meat, fish and poultry sales grew by 2.2%.
Independent Retailers:
- Sales through independent retailers increased by 6.9% to nearly £10million a week – their highest level since 2008.
- Sales through veg box-schemes, independent online shops and other home-delivery outlets increased by 11%.
Multiple Retailers:
- Supermarket sales grew by 1.2% – the first increase since 2009.
- The strongest growth was seen by Ocado (+10.4%) and Waitrose (+6.5%). Sainsbury’s is the UK’s biggest organic retailer, with sales of its own-label organic range up 7%.
Catering:
- Catering and restaurant sales rose by 10%, thanks to the success of the Soil Association’s Food for Life Catering Mark and demand from high-street chains, such as McDonald’s and Pret A Manger, for organic milk, tea and coffee.
Health and Beauty:
- Sales of organic health and beauty products grew by 17% in 2013 to £37.2 million.
- The number of Soil Association symbol holders increased by 12.5% to 135.
Textiles:
- The UK’s leading certifier of organic products to Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), saw the turnover of its 73 textile symbol holders increase by 36% in 2013
- Much of this growth was export-led, but the UK market for organic cotton is estimated to have grown by around 10%.
Farming:
- Defra reports that producer and livestock numbers and the UK’s organic land area decreased in the year to December 2012 – the most recent period for which UK-wide data are available.
- In July 2013, the UK’s organic land area was reported to be 606,000 hectares (based on Defra data to the end of 2012).
- The area of land under organic management is greater than the combined areas of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, and constitutes 3.5% of the agricultural land area.
- Numbers of organic producers and processors fell by 6.3% to 6,487.
Check the following link to read/download the full Soil Association Organic Market Report 2014:
www.soilassociation.org/marketreport
Source: Soil Association.
Notes:
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from the Soil Association’s 2014 Organic Market Report.
[1] Nielsen Total Till report period to 4th January 2014
[2] Nielsen Scantrack, Grocery Multiples Unit Growth, 4 weeks to 1st February 2014.
[3] Kantar Worldpanel Sales data
[4] YouGov research: Total sample size was 2,072 adults, of whom 956 were ‘organic consumers’ (having bought organic in the last 12 months). Fieldwork was undertaken between February 10-11, 2014. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+)
[5] Leapfrog/ OMR 2013
About Soil Association
Founded in 1946 by a group of farmers, scientists and nutritionists, the Soil Association is UK’s leading membership charity campaigning for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use. Soil Association Certification Ltd. is a subsidiary of the charity, which undertakes certification. They have over 150 staff based in Bristol and Edinburgh and working as certification inspectors across the country. For more information, visit www.soilassociation.org.
