Wednesday, July 12, 2006 Australian organic producers can look...

Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Australian organic producers can look to export markets
AUSTRALIA - Organic food producers in Australia should look to exports to boost their sales, advises a new government report.

Organic food is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global food industry, growing at double-digit rates compared to just 1-2 per cent on average in other foods, said the report by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC).

And it claims that there is “a large amount of latent unsatisfied demand” for organic foods.

In the United States, the market that caters to nearly 145 million consumers each year is growing by 20 per cent annually, while three-quarters of the UK's 60 million people also buy organic produce each year, driving demand by 11 per cent.

The European Union, where organic food has become a mainstream food category on offer in most big supermarkets, is also an ‘enormous' market for organic produce, and there are export opportunities in the rapidly-growing markets of Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore too, said the report.