Making organic lifestyle choices is part of a growing trend. Supermarkets, health food stores, farmers markets, consumers supported agricultural programs, help to make organic products more available. According to Ismea report, this sector of the food industry is growing faster that any other: in the first semester 2015, biological food sales increased up to 0% compared to the same time of the previous year. For a total turnover of 2,1 billion euros, this is how much the bio retail accounts in Italy. A number, moreover, which does not include the food service.
Traditional grocery still commands the lion’s share of sales generated from food products. Supermarkets, hypermarkets and discounts are the main retail channels: they registered sales of organic foods for 855 million euros and account for the 40% of the total turnover of bio retail. As indicated in the Ismea report 2015, among the most dynamic items, we find cereals which grew 19% in the 2014 and up to 28% in the first six months of 2015, compared to the same period of the previous year. Then we have all categories of fresh vegetables which jumped up sales to 14% in the first semester of 2015, compared to the same period of the previous year.
However, consumers do not fear to spend extra-money to acquire organic food, which is more expensive. As demand is increasing, in the large distribution scale, organic products cost from 10% to 20% more than conventional foods. Sales in the non traditional grocery channels grew slightly, nearly 15% starting from 2010.