Once a niche market dominated by specialty grocers such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, organic has gone mainstream.
When Melissa Hoff of Flemington goes grocery shopping, she tries to avoid foods that are "hormone or pesticide assisted" and looks instead for organic cereals, peanut butter and "even some types of beef, depending on whether it's grass-fed versus conventional."
"It's just better for you," said Hoff, 27. "I'm into being more healthy these days."
Supermarket chains have gotten the message and taken notice of an industry that has been growing at a rate of 20 percent a year for at least the past five years.
"When you see organic Rice Krispies, you know it's arrived," said Karen Meleta, spokeswoman for ShopRite, the largest non-farm cooperative with approximately 200 stores in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Connecticut.
Leading organic chains -- Whole Foods and Wild Oats -- continue to enjoy growth, with a 2004 combined sales increase of 19.3 percent over the previous year, according to a 2005 report by Retailforward.com. In 2004, Whole Foods generated about $4 billion in sales with 160 stores, the report said.
ShopRite, Wegmans and high-volume membership retailers such as Costco and Sam's Club, have introduced private label lines of organic products ranging from milk to chickens to potato chips and are devoting more shelf space to the growing number of organic items being produced by others.
"Consumer interest and demand is always the driving force," said ShopRite's Meleta. "We keep a pulse on what our consumers want, but there are also more items available. Look at organic foods and compare today to what there was available 10 years ago. There's no comparison."
Wal-Mart has launched a media campaign that focuses on what it calls the "democratization of organic," bringing organic groceries to customers at better prices than the competition. The nation's largest grocery retailer will be carrying even more organic food at its 2,000 supercenters, which average about 190,000 square feet, and more than 100 neighborhood markets.
Currently, 10 cents of every grocery store dollar are spent either on natural or organic products, said Ronnie Cummins, the national director of the Organic Consumers Association in Minnesota. Certified organic food sales account for $15 billion, which is about 2.5 percent of all grocery sales, Cummins said. That figure, he said, doesn't include the growing multibillion market including locally grown produce which may not have the certified seal, but is often grown with organic practices.
"Half the farmers in the U.S. choose not to get certified because they're selling to local markets and they trust them," Cummins said.
Like Hoff, more Americans are now thinking about how their food is being grown and processed and about the use of synthetic herbicides and pesticides, antibiotics or growth hormones, and the treatment of animals, the retailers say.
The trend is reinforced by health-consciousness, concern for the environment and a desire to support local farmers.
It is even changing the way we dine out.
At the Bridgewater Marriott, Greg Griffie, executive chef for TBones Steakhouse, said that he began incorporating more local foods from produce to using fish from sustainable fisheries into his menu when he took the job a year ago.
"There are so many great farmers and foods people right here in our backyard."
Griffie said he deals with a lot of business travelers and families on the weekend. "The business and restaurant consumer is more conscious now than ever of where foods come from and what quality is," he said. "And they have a higher level of expectation of what they're being served."
Helping to meet the demand for home-grown produce are growers such as the family-owned Bardy Farms grocery market and garden center in Warren, which farms on rented land in South Jersey. Though not technically certified with an organic label, the Bardys grow their own produce and buy from other local farmers who grow food following organic methods.
Their approach is touted on the the home page of their Web site with a heading that reads: "Organic Foods, a better way to grow!"
Father and son Phil and Rob Bardy, the second and third generation Bardys who operate the 100-year-old market, believe that insect problems are best handled with potent cayenne pepper mixtures or the introduction of "good" insects like lady bugs.
"We grow all types of vegetables, use no chemical at all on it. A lot of the public, they want to know what we do, how we grow this stuff," said Phil Bardy, 88.
In addition to fresh produce, Bardy Farms also carries organic meats, milk, cheese, frozen vegetables and berries.
Mike Freeman, the manager of the Bridgewater Costco, said that organic "is the industry's leading category. It's a huge market."
The Costco shopper is the kind of shopper who will also go to Wegmans and has no problem picking up something that costs a little more because of an interest and understanding of what organic is, Freeman said.
"We know a lot of young people are coming into the category, mothers, young families," said Dave Wagner, group manager for Nature's Marketplace, Wegman's store within a store featuring organic products that first opened in 1995 in its Rochester location. Nature's Marketplace started out with about 2,500 square feet of dedicated space. Today, that section of most stores averages about 4,200 square feet.
Across product lines, Wegmans spokespeople estimate that they carry at least 2,000 certified organic products, including Nature's Marketplace and produce items. Additionally, Wegmans continues to work with items in development, such as baby food. While they generally don't discuss development items, Wagner said that overall an issue with developing organic items comes down to how to make a good tasting fresh product and keeping it affordable.
For its milk products, Wegmans works with New York state farmers who supply all of its stores. Wegmans also works with about 900 local produce growers across the five states where it does business including New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. "We have always worked with local growers," said Jo Natale, spokeswoman for Wegmans.
This year, Wegmans started including information about local farmers on its Web site.
"It's clear to us, people want to support local growers because the sales tell that story. When we sell local produce, people buy it in very large quantities," Natale said. "They know it's fresh and we know that this is important to our customers."
At Sam's Club's 566 locations, "member demand" for organic foods is also a driving force, said Olan James. "They're telling us they want organic merchandise, but they also want it at a great value."
At the beginning of this year, James said, the club, a division of Wal-Mart Inc., introduced organic items -- including sugar, coffee, salad dressing and gummy bears -- under its private label, Members' Mark. Some Sam's Clubs have begun introducing organic wines.
These products come "through relationships with suppliers," James said. Sam's Club does not disclose details involving sales figures or supplier relationships, he said.
Wal-mart's marketing campaign is aimed at getting consumers to think about price as well as product when shopping for organic foods, said spokeswoman Karen Burk.
"We wanted them to know we have organic products if they're looking for an alternative at prices better than those offered by our competition," she said. Wal-Mart is the largest buyer of U.S. agricultural products in the world, Burk said.
from the Courier News website www.c-n.com
Organic & Home Grown: More Mainstream by the Day
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Organic products are big bite of grocery stores' total sales
By MARY ANN D'URSO Staff Writer
Bridgewater Courier News - NJ, United States, August 6, 2006
Straight to the Source
