Unless you’ve had your head stuck in the sand, you know we’re in a recession. Because of that economic slow down, it was expected by market researchers that there would be a slump in sales of organic foods.
Organic Food Sales Increased
Turns out instead of a slow down in organic food sales, they actually increased by 15.8 percent in 2008, according to a survey done by the Lieberman Research Group for the Organic Trade Association (OTA).
The Organic Trade Association’s executive director Christine Bushway declared, “Organic products represent value to consumers, who have shown continued resilience in seeking out these products. This marks another milestone for the organic food market.”
The survey found that organic food accounted for about 3.5 percent of US food sales last year. Not only that, but organic food sales grew at a much faster rate than general US food sales.
The Biggest Sellers In Organic Foods
Yes, we love our fruits and vegetables! They constitute the biggest part of organic food sales, accounting for about 37 percent. As I mentioned in a previous post, “Food Holidays In June“, now is a great time to be getting fresh fruits and vegetables at Farmer’s Markets. If you don’t know where to find one, you can look at the Local Harvest website to locate the nearest Farmer’s Markets, family farms and producers of organic foods.
Beverages and dairy sales are the other biggest sellers in the organic food market, at 14 percent each. Organic beverage sales are growing the fastest, with 40% more sales in 2008 than the previous year. Organic breads and grains are close behind in sales growth, with 35 percent more sales over the year before.
(If you’re interested in the best whole grain breads, check out “Looking For Healthy Whole Grain Breads.”)
Choosing Organic Food
So how about you? In these times when most people are trying to make their dollar stretch more and more, are you choosing to go for the value of organic foods?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
We are surely trying each week at the grocery to buy as much organic as we can! We are really “pinching pennies” right now, but we really value the benefits of organic. Our life has changed since our son’s Eczema has nearly gone away from the use of his Vidazorb probiotics. We had a looong and hard three yrs dealing with a lot of itching, scratching and bleeding. It was so important to us to eliminate as much chemicals, synthetics and harmful substances around the house…this situation has changed our family, and now all we want is natural products. We love organic and just wish it were not so expensive- making most people feel las though they just can’t afford it. Caroline
Hi Caroline!
Thanks for stopping by “Health Food Made Easy.”
I can certainly see why changing so there were less chemicals around the house and in your food would be very important to you!
It’s too bad, in a way, we can’t all see what the chemicals are doing to us over the long haul. I suspect a lot of health problems don’t get connected to chemicals that probably should be.
Thanks for your comments!