German consumers may face a shortage of organic food as supply fails to keep up with rising demand, the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported today, citing the agricultural price-monitoring agency ZMP GmbH.

Sales of organic food rose more than 15 percent last year after an increase of 18 percent in 2006, giving what in German is called “bio” produce a market volume of about 5 billion euros ($7.3 billion), the newspaper said. 2007 was the fourth consecutive year of growth of more than 10 percent, it said.

Five percent of German farmers produce organic food, according to the newspaper. Organic apples, potatoes and eggs have a share of between 3.5 percent and 4.1 percent of the country’s overall food market, Rundschau said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holger Elfes in Dusseldorf at helfes@bloomberg.net