After a setback in 2022, people in Germany are increasingly turning to organic products again. Discounters benefit the most from this. But here too, customers encounter higher prices.
Whether it’s reaching for the milk shelf, eggs or vegetables – organic food is once again in greater demand among people in Germany. Last year, consumers spent 16.1 billion euros on organically produced products. That was five percent more than in the previous year, as the Federation of Organic Food Industry (BÖLW) announced. In 2022, sales of organic products fell due to high inflation and citizens’ subdued purchasing mood. Now the industry is coming out of the crisis again, said BÖLW chairwoman Tina Andres in Nuremberg.
At the world’s largest natural food trade fair, Biofach – held in parallel with the natural cosmetics trade fair Vivaness – the industry association spread optimism. According to BÖLW, organic sales in food retail increased by 7.2 percent to 10.8 billion euros in 2023. Sales in organic specialist retailers amounted to 3.2 billion euros, while health food stores, farm shops and online retail achieved sales of 2.1 billion euros.
In retail, the largest share of organic food sales (40 percent) came from discounters. Organic shops and organic supermarkets were only able to increase their sales slightly in 2023. They were faced with continued high inflation and very price-sensitive customers in specialist retailers.
With inflation leveling off, organic specialist retailers also recorded increasing sales again in 2023, as the Federal Association of Natural Foods (BNN) recently confirmed. At 3.83 billion euros, sales of pure organic stores in 2023 were around 0.2 percent above the previous year. The BNN figures include the sales of all organic markets and all supermarkets with a purely organic offering.
When looking at the entire organic industry, sales growth is, according to BÖLW, primarily driven by increased prices and stable sales volumes. Market analyst Diana Schaack from Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft also sees the increased prices as the main reason for the sales growth in the organic sector. On average, organic food became five percent more expensive last year, while the price increase for food in general was nine percent. At the same time, sales growth for conventional foods was lower than the increase in prices, observed analyst Schaack.
Consumer goods expert David Georgi from market researcher NIQ also confirmed this trend: “At first glance, organic food has so far been surprisingly resilient when it comes to the influence of inflation.” At second glance, however, the impact of the austerity requirement on consumers became apparent. Georgi said that within organic food, it was almost exclusively the own brands that grew. The expert sees “massive risk factors” in growing organic ranges and a sometimes large price gap between discount and specialist retailers.
Meanwhile, the industry association BÖLW announced a further increase in organic acreage in Germany. The area under organic cultivation has increased over the past year to the extent of more than 300 football fields and now amounts to around 1.94 million hectares. This means that almost 12 percent of all agricultural land in Germany is now farmed organically.
The federal government’s declared goal is for organic agriculture to account for 30 percent of all land by 2030. According to Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens), more organic farming also depends on more farms taking part. However, their number remained largely the same in 2023 at around 36,500 and a share of 14.3 percent of all companies.
A look at Germany’s neighboring countries also shows that there is still room for improvement in the market for organic products. While per capita sales of organic products in this country were 184 euros in 2022, Austrians spent 287 euros. And in Switzerland the value was recently equivalent to 441 euros.
Trade fair page message BÖLW
Source: Stern
