Organic market report 2011

Sales of organic products fell 5.9% to £1.73 billion in 2010 with the rate of decline slowing significantly throughout the year, according to our 2011 Organic Market Report.

The outlook for 2011 is cautiously optimistic. Despite fragile consumer confidence in the wider economy, the report shows positive signs of resilience and recovery for the organic sector overall. The biggest success stories were sales of organic beef (up 18%), organic baby food (up 10.3%) and organic textiles (up 7.8%).

The report also shows that shoppers spend more than £33 million a week on all things organic, and that 86% of households now buy organic products. Dairy products and fresh fruit and vegetables are the most popular categories, accounting for 30.5% and 23.2% of sales respectively.

Although sales through multiple retailers fell by 7.7%, to £1.25 billion, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer anticipate modest growth for 2011, while Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and the Co-operative predict level sales year on year. Multiple retail accounted for 72.3% of the organic market in 2010.

Organically managed land decreased by 0.6% to 738,709 hectares and now represents 4.2% of UK farmland, equivalent to more than the combined area of Somerset and Wiltshire. The number of UK organic producers fell by 4.2% to 7,567 in 2010, from a record high of 7,896 the previous year.
 

• Download the 2011 Organic market report [PDF, 4.8 MB]
• Read our deputy director's blog on the market report

This year's report was sponsored by Triodos www.triodos.co.uk

Previous reports

• Organic market report 2010 [PDF, 735 KB]
• Organic market report 2009 [PDF, 756 KB]
• Organic market report 2007 [PDF, 1.8 MB]
• Organic market report 2006 [PDF, 3.1 MB]
• Organic market report 2005 [PDF, 4.7 MB]
• Organic market report 2004 [PDF, 1.2 MB]