Organic Market Scenario

Successful development of international organic markets Germany: Spate of new organic supermarkets continues   A total of 71 new organic supermarkets and stores were opened in Germany last year, including eleven new organic stores with 200 m² to 400 m² of sales space and 60 organic supermarkets of over 400 m². The statistics from Organic-Market.Info also show 13 relocations to sites with more sales space. This means there are more than 500 organic stores and supermarkets in Germany with a sales space of more than 200 m² at the beginning of 2009. Between 25 and 83 new organic supermarkets a year were opened in the other years since 2000. The number of organic chains, which operate almost half of all stores, rose to 18.

Worldwide organic sales top 40 billion dollars The organic movement is attracting attention all over the world. Sales in the organic sector are developing extremely positively. Fit singles, food-conscious young families and the older generation with its high spending power all attach importance to their health, which boosts the worldwide sales of organic products. The discussion on climate change also unmistakably shows the necessity for a change to more sustainability. More and more people are becoming aware that everyone has a responsibility for his living environment as well as his own health. Politicians are intensively looking for solutions to bring urgent global environmental problems under control.

The development of the international organic retail trade and supermarket chains is progressing at widely varying speeds. The present boom countries include the USA, Germany, Great Britain and Sweden. Organic turnover is expected to double in the next five years in these countries. They provide the impetus in international competition for the best organic concepts and key import markets and thus support organic farming and processing in many export-orientated countries. Organic farming is gaining ground almost everywhere in Europe.
Example Spain: Spain is one of the EU leaders with a growth of 10 % to 808,000 ha of organically farmed land and 8 % to over 2,000 processors in 2005.

Germany: Still a keen appetite for organic – 160,000 jobs
The turnover of the whole organic industry has risen by two-figure amounts for the last three years. The Germans enjoyed organic products worth 3.9 billion EUR in 2005 (Prof. Ulrich Hamm, University of Kassel). More than 10 % growth is expected again in 2006. Especially the opening of 40 to 60 new organic supermarkets a year and the activities of the discounters noticeably contribute to market growth. Consumers are also becoming more aware of quality in view of constantly new food scandals or incidents of genetically modified food. Berlin with over 30 organic supermarkets has more than any other German city and 9 new stores with over 200 m2 of sales space opened there in 2005.