Organic food 'to become luxury again' in Germany
Organic food is set to become a luxury again, as rising prices on the food market in general makes going organic less attractive to producers, according to a report in the German Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag.
Organic options were well down the road to becoming mainstream, with discount supermarkets such as Aldi and Plus offering their own organic, or ‘bio’ products.
This has been a success, with huge growth for these product lines – last year was the fourth in a row with double-digit growth figures.
But price rises could spell the end of cheap organics, as they are hit harder by increasing costs, the paper warns.
“When the discounters see the prices for organic products going too high, they will taken them from their shelves,” Alexander Gerber, manager at the Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft, or Organic Food Business Association.
“Those who want a full selection will have to go to the specialist shops where the prices are generally a bit higher, but where quality is also particularly good.”
Farmers are less likely to make the investment of switching to organic if prices are high anyway, the paper suggests.
“When the producers can earn well with their conventionally-grown goods, their readiness to switch to organic sinks, even though the opportunities are good at the moment,” Thomas Dosch, president of farmer association Bioland, told the paper.
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Organic options were well down the road to becoming mainstream, with discount supermarkets such as Aldi and Plus offering their own organic, or ‘bio’ products.
This has been a success, with huge growth for these product lines – last year was the fourth in a row with double-digit growth figures.
But price rises could spell the end of cheap organics, as they are hit harder by increasing costs, the paper warns.
“When the discounters see the prices for organic products going too high, they will taken them from their shelves,” Alexander Gerber, manager at the Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft, or Organic Food Business Association.
“Those who want a full selection will have to go to the specialist shops where the prices are generally a bit higher, but where quality is also particularly good.”
Farmers are less likely to make the investment of switching to organic if prices are high anyway, the paper suggests.
“When the producers can earn well with their conventionally-grown goods, their readiness to switch to organic sinks, even though the opportunities are good at the moment,” Thomas Dosch, president of farmer association Bioland, told the paper.
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