Organic foods in Britain are experiencing their strongest growth in customer demand for over a decade with sales of fresh meat up 13% in the last year, according to figures released by Tesco.
Tesco said that it has seen organic sales rise by 15% in the past 12 months, with fruit and vegetables leading the rise with an increase of 17%. Grocery items, meanwhile, rose by 16% while both fresh meat and chilled foods rose by 13%.
“Shoppers are increasingly looking to buy organic food but it needs to be affordable and consistently high quality all year round for it to be considered a viable option,” said Tesco’s organic food spokesperson, Tina Moore.
“The popularity of organic food began with fruit and vegetables but we are now seeing customers exploring areas such as grocery, fish and dairy, so they can now use organic produce for the whole meal.”
Last Autumn Tesco joined forces with the Organic Trade Board (OTB) in an initiative to help customers discover the breadth of the range on offer in its stores.
“Traditionally, the two main challenges for customers buying organic, is the price and the availability,” said OTB chair, Adrian Blackshaw.
“Over the last decade, however, we have seen this improve across the industry and now the organic market is in a clear growth phase in the UK.”
OTB recently won a share of £9m of EU funding to help promote organic food in Britain and Denmark and has said it will be working with Tesco to try to “further increase the organic market”.