UK organic sales grow, outpacing domestic output

Sales of organic products in Britain rose by 30 per cent last year but domestic output is struggling to keep pace and imports look set to climb, the Soil Association said in its annual market report issued yesterday.

"We are now in a situation of real undersupply... which is great for farmers but it does mean very difficult times for processors and retailers and consumers as well who want to buy organic food grown in the UK," Helen Browning, Food and Farming Director for the Soil Association, told a media briefing.

Sales of organic products in Britain reached £1.58 billion in 2005, up 30 per cent from £1.21 billion the previous year, according to figures issued by the Soil Association, Britain's organic certification body.

Organically managed land in Britain fell eight per cent last year to 631,144 hectares, mainly due to a decline in the area of organic grassland, particularly in Scotland. Organic land accounts for 3.4 per cent of the UK's total agricultural.

Land in the process of switching to organic farming increased by 68 per cent from a year earlier to 87,020 hectares, boosted by strong market signals and reforms to European Union agricultural policy.

The EU is in the process of breaking the link between farm payments and production, allowing farmers more freedom to switch to less intensive forms of agriculture such as organic farming.

"It is going to take some time for that production to feed through into the marketplace. In the case of beef it could take three or four years," Ms Browning said.

"It is inevitable there will be a rise in imports over the next 12 months," she added.

The global market for organic food and drink totalled £16.7 billion in 2005, an increase of £1.2 billion or about eight per cent from the previous year, the Soil Association said.