Sales of organic food and drink in the UK rose by 4.5% last year to a record £2.45bn, fuelled by strong growth online and in home delivery, and outpacing a sluggish food and drink market overall.
The sector grew for the eighth consecutive year, having fallen after the recession, and is on target to hit £2.5bn by the end of 2020, according to a report from the Soil Association, the trade body which licenses organic products and promotes organic farming.
Last year’s total, up from £2.3bn in 2018, compares with the pre-recession high of £2.1bn in 2008.
An estimated £200m a month is now spent on organic food and drink, and shoppers typically make two more monthly trips to buy it than they did five years ago, the report says. Independent retailers – the traditional high street home of organic – enjoyed a 6.5% uplift in sales.
But the biggest single growth channel was online retail and home delivery – including organic veg box schemes such as Abel & Cole and Riverford – where sales rose by 11.2%.
“With the climate crisis and British farming dominating the headlines, organic is more relevant than ever as a way for shoppers looking for simple choices to reduce their environmental impact,” said Clare McDermott, business development director at Soil Association Certification.
Supermarket sales of organic food and drink increased again in 2019, up 2.5%, outpacing the overall market, although their overall share of the UK’s organic market fell slightly.
Non-organic sales at supermarkets edged up by only 0.2% over the same period, the report said. The UK is the ninth largest organic market in the world, down from seventh position last year.
Organic wine was the standout winner, with sales soaring nearly 50%.
However, the organic market is still dwarfed by the size of the overall food and drink sector, now the largest manufacturing segment in the UK and worth £28bn, according to the Food and Drink Federation.