March/April 2021 - 23

USDA AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOK
A REASON WHY
Andrea Carlson, an economist
for the USDA's Economic Research
Service, presented a variety of market
data about the
organic food
sales, displaying
charts showing the
program's rise from
humble beginnings
in 2002 to nearly a
$50 billion industry
in 2020 - one
Andrea Carlson
constant over the years has been how
fruits and vegetables have dominated
the category.
A review of social science literature
shows a few insights into why
customers have chosen organic foods.
" For demographics, we find that
organic consumers cut across all
incomes, educations and ages and
ethnicities, " Carlson said. " However,
younger shoppers are more represented
than older shoppers, and we also find
that households with younger children
are more represented in organic
consumers. The most common reason
motivating shoppers to shop organic is
" a belief that organic is safer, or a desire
to avoid pesticides and non-therapeutic
antibiotics. " Other shoppers believe
the food is simply more nutritious and
sustainable.
PRODUCE DURING PANDEMIC
Organic Trade Association CEO
Laura Batchta went over more
recent numbers on organic sales,
data on retail checkouts scans via the
consulting firm SPINS.
Organic sales were growing by 12%
at the end of 2020, compared to just
5% at the end of 2019, she said. A big
spike occurred in the middle of the
pandemic as consumers packed their
pantries in a buying frenzy.
It wasn't just fresh sales - frozen
organic fruits and vegetables had 23%
growth at the end of 2020, she said,
while shelf-stable fruits and vegetables
had 18% growth at the end of 2020.
" This is really reflective of folks
spending a larger portion of their time
at home and a larger number of their
meals being prepared at home, and as
a result, that's created a spike in the
growth in sales of organic in retail, "
Organic foods didn't seem to be as heavily
impacted by the closure of foodservice outlets.
she said. " When families are cooking
more at home, and eating more at
home, they're buying more organic.
And we know that organic has always
been food for home. And when people
have control over diets, they will
select organic at the grocery store. "
Organic foods didn't seem to be
as heavily impacted by the closure
of foodservice outlets. But they also
couldn't surge to meet demand as
quickly as traditional farmers.
" With organic, you can't just
flip a switch, you have a three-year
transition period for land to come into
organic and you have facilities that
need to be certified organic, all the
way from the farm to the co-packer,
the packinghouse, " Batchta said.
" This has held back sales even with
these great growth rates in organic.
We heard reports of products being
on what's called 'allocation' for good
parts of the middle of 2020, meaning
that manufacturers and growers and
packers and shippers of product were
allocating portions of their volume
to different retailers and never being
able to fill the entire orders that were
coming in because there just wasn't
more product. "
INVESTING IN ORGANIC
Mathieu Ngouajio, who is the
national science liaison for plant
systems at the National Institute of
Food and Agriculture (NIFA), spoke
about federal funding for organic
agriculture.
" We are not
investing enough
in research and
development, "
Ngouajio said. " We
need to really invest
in organic agriculture
if we want to sustain
the growth. "
Mathieu Ngouajio
But, he reminded the audience of
the good news: USDA NIFA has two
specific programs at NIFA that allocate
funds specifically for organic agriculture:
Organic Agriculture Research and
Extension Initiative (OREI) and Organic
Transitions. The 2018 Farm Bill called
for the funding to OREI to more than
double, from $20 million in 2018-2019
to $50 million by 2023.
Seth Meyers is the USDA Chief Economist. Photo: USDA/Lance Cheung
ORGANICGROWER.INFO 23
http://www.ORGANICGROWER.INFO
March/April 2021

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