The year 2023 was obviously a reason for celebration for the organic industry in Germany. After a dip in 2022, sales of organic food have increased again. “The increase in sales and space in the organic food industry shows how stable the industry is,” said Tina Andres, Chairwoman of the Federation of Organic Food Industry (BÖLW). At the start of Biofach, the world’s leading trade fair for organic food, the association traditionally announced the industry’s key figures for the past year on Tuesday. Sales of organic food grew by 5 percent and now amount to 16.1 billion euros. Organic therefore accounts for 6.3 percent of sales on the entire food market. Anne Kokenbrink Editor in business Follow I follow However, organic growth has hardly been due to increasing quantities, but primarily due to increased prices, said Diana Schaack, market analyst at Agrarmarkt-Informations-Gesellschaft. For conventional foods, however, sales growth was lower than the increase in prices. Food retailers particularly benefited from organic last year. According to BÖLW, this achieved a sales increase of 7.2 percent in 2023. With total sales of 10.8 billion euros and a market share of 67 percent, food retail accounts for the majority of organic sales. The discounters are very important with a market share of 40 percent. According to Röhrig, dry products and plant-based drinks were particularly popular in 2023. According to BÖLW, organic milk alternatives recorded a 15 percent increase in sales last year. In terms of sales volumes, there was also a sharp increase of six and five percent for cheese and sausage. Organic retailers have also increased, albeit less strongly. Organic retailers are more satisfied again The organic specialist trade association Bundesverband Naturkost Naturwaren (BNN) reports increasing sales in organic shops and organic supermarkets. “Overall, the organic specialist trade will be robust in 2023, contrary to many expectations,” said Kathrin Jäckel, Managing Director of the BNN, about the developments of the past year. After sales declines were recorded for the first time in 2022, organic shops and organic supermarkets achieved an increase of 0.2 percent compared to the previous year in 2023 with total sales of 3.83 billion euros. According to BÖLW, organic retailers were responsible for 20 percent of all sales in 2023 – with a share of 6.5 percent of all sales outlets. According to BNN, the number of purchases and the amount of individual sales also increased in organic retailers last year. Fabian Ganz from the market research institute for organic specialist retailers and health food retailers Biovista reports an average of nine more customers on each sales day in the second half of the year compared to the same period last year. In addition, customers would spend more money per purchase. The average purchase is worth 20.88 euros, which is 0.15 euros higher than the previous year. Ganz assumes that the upward trend will continue in 2024. Peter Röhrig, managing director of BÖLW, agrees with this assessment. “Customers remain loyal to organic products even in turbulent times,” he says confidently. This is not least due to the lower inflation for organic foods compared to all foods. Organic acreage is growing, but only slowly But why are more consumers choosing organic food again? The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture investigated the question in a survey in 2023. Organic consumers cited species-appropriate husbandry (54 percent) and healthy food (44 percent) as the most important reasons for choosing organic products. Gerald Wehde, head of agricultural policy at Bioland, sees organic as an important trend in the food trade. In addition, regionality is becoming increasingly important for consumers. Organic acreage is also increasing – albeit slowly. Last year, 11.8 percent of all agricultural land was cultivated organically, at 1.94 million hectares. This means an increase of 4.3 percent compared to the previous year. About two thirds of these organic areas also met the stricter standards of the organic associations. “Association organic” is now on the rise because retail chains want to offer more association products in their markets, said market analyst Diana Schaack. But even with the increase in area, we are still far from the goal of having 30 percent of agricultural land cultivated organically by 2030, emphasized the BÖLW. It is also interesting that although the organic area is growing, the number of organic farms is falling slightly. There are currently 36,500 farms in Germany operating according to ecological criteria. That corresponds to about one in seven farms.
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