Professional food and drink buyers visiting next month’s Natural Food trade Show will be treated to a record number of new natural, organic, biodynamic, Fairtrade, free-from and special diet products for 2013, says organiser Diversified Communications UK. Returning to London’s Olympia on 7-8 April, over half of this year’s New Product Showcase entries, which currently includes over 250 products (up 20% on 2012’s total) have been entered into the food, organic food, drink, and special diet categories.
Notably, given this week’s the launch of the Soil Association Organic Market Report, it’s organic food and drink products that currently top the entries these four showcase categories in 2013.
This rise in new innovations being launched onto the organic market reflects the continuing growth in the global sales of organic food and drink, which according to analysts Organic Monitor, has risen over 25% since 2008.
Despite the continuing economic downturn affecting all sales, not least organic products in the UK this year’s Organic Market Report highlights some key areas of growth. Organic catering and restaurant sales, for example, rose by 1.6% in 2012. Specialist organic suppliers, such as Ocado, Abel & Cole, Riverford, Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic, and many independent retail outlets across the UK, also saw a rise in organic sales (up 6.4% in the case of Ocado); with online sales now worth an estimated £4.1m a week. Whilst the under-35s, the so called ‘Jamie generation’, which account for 16% of all sales, are cited as having significantly increased their average spend in 2012.
Talking to Natural Products earlier this week, Jim Twine, the Soil Association’s business development director, was upbeat about the prospects for the UK organic sector: “Despite the fall off we’ve seen in the recession, there are a lot of committed organic consumers out there. Indies are really well placed to take advantage of this – they are already, their organic sales are growing. Also, for the first time we’ve got the hard data to show that the ‘Jamie generation’ is making its impact. And by definition, pulling through these younger shoppers means you are building the future generation of organic consumers,” says Twine.
Natural & Organic Products Europe, of which the Natural Food Show is a part, has been helping to launch new brands into the natural and organic market since 1997. As the only dedicated trade event of its type in the UK, the Natural Food Show, which features nearly 300 exhibitors from all around the world, is perfectly positioned to offer visiting retailers and foodservice buyers with a lucrative opportunity to stock their shelves (real and virtual) and refresh their menus with the best choice of new food and drink options for their current – and future – organic consumers.
The full New Products Showcase listing (to date) can be viewed at
http://onlineexhibitormanual.com/NOPE13/exhi/NewProductsShowCaseList.aspx.
