For several years, we used to read, to hear that organic food was one of the food sectors which knew the strongest growth. Judge for yourself: the growth of organic reached 17.9% in 2019 and 15.4% in 2020. But this is no longer true today and organic food products seem to be in great difficulty.
Over the period from February 2021 to February 2022, dairy products lost 9% in volume and 13% in value. As for the “grocery” sub-category – canned fruits and vegetables, ready meals, rice, pasta, sauces, spreads, soups, spices, cereals, oil, condiments – it fell by 2.8% in volume and by 7.2% in value.
Be careful though: here we are not talking regarding organic fruits and vegetables, which remain stable or drop just a little.
Not abnormal stabilization
This observation, which may seem alarmist, must be qualified.
First, as we have seen, organic fruits and vegetables remain more or less stable and this is ultimately the most important for those who respect the food pyramid.
Then, organic had experienced such growth that it is not unusual for this growth to stabilize.
The fault of the decline in purchasing power
Especially in the current circumstances where the Belgian is hit hard in his purchasing power. We have been talking regarding it for two weeks, the Belgian has started to arbitrate between his purchases. He is more careful regarding what he buys to protect his budget. He adopts a more conservative buying behavior, focused on price and safety. Especially since the current context has pushed environmental issues into the background.
Figures only from supermarkets
Finally, in these figures that I have just given you, we do not take into account short circuits and specialized stores: these figures relate to supermarkets. If these reflect an underlying trend, it is quite possible that in the smallest shops, a priori specialized, the decline will be less significant. We must hope so because it would be detestable if some of these stores, faced with the increase in their charges, disappeared.
The soufflé of short circuits falls
For short circuit distribution, which had also increased sharply at the height of the pandemic, the soufflé seems to have fallen. According to the testimonies, in particular in the newspaper Le Soir, the cooperatives would have lost between 80 and 65% of the new customers freshly converted during the Covid crisis.
This disillusionment is comparable to that of young market gardeners who started 3 or 4 years ago and who discovered that it was very difficult to eat anything other than their produce at the end of the month.
A lack of knowledge of the underside of the trade
I also think a lot of actors have underestimated everything that needs to happen downstream of production. Logistics, customer attraction, knowledge and loyalty, marketing, unsold items, etc. Producing is already extremely demanding for farmers and artisans. Many dreamers thought that it was enough to appear so that there was a process of spontaneous and lasting generation of loyal customers.
There is clearly a need for reorganization and professionalization to shorten the path from producer to plate for a mass of customers. And it’s worth it… Let’s support them!
