Abstract
This study uses retail purchase data reported by the Nielsen Homescan panel to examine the development of selected U.S. organic food sectors since the implementation of the National Organic Standards. Results show that organic market shares within the fresh fruit and vegetable sectors grew slightly in 2003–2006. Apples, bananas, carrots, and tomatoes prove to have the highest share of organic sales within their sectors. The share of organic milk sales attributed to private labels has increased from 12 to 32 percent in 2004–2007. The organic market share within the strained baby food sector almost doubled from 8 to 15 percent in 2004–2007. Findings show a demographically diverse group of consumers willing to expend their food dollars on organic foods.
Highlights
With a growing world population and demand for food, interests in an enduring and diverse agricultural system have been ever increasing in recent years
Aside from looking at organic market shares and price premiums, we examine the share of organic fresh fruit spending by specific consumer segments
Our results show that the share of private label in conventional milk sales has been relatively stable, increasing about 6 percent nationwide from 2004 to 2007, while the share of organic milk sales has increased almost 160 percent
Summary
With a growing world population and demand for food, interests in an enduring and diverse agricultural system have been ever increasing in recent years. While the two market giants in the organic marketplace, produce and dairy, garnered over half of the reported retail organic sales in 2007, the organic baby food sector held a modest 1.4 percent of the market [4]. While trends in the organic food market have been reported for major food groups (e.g., produce, dairy, and baby food), there exists a void in some detail descriptions of specific foods within each group (e.g., distribution of individual fruits and vegetables) as well as consumer spending across important household characteristics. The objective of this study is to describe the U.S retail organic food sector in more detail, focusing on fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as fluid milk and strained baby food, by analyzing market make-up and investigating purchasing patterns across key consumer demographics. We discuss what new insights can be gained from such an analysis
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