The Soil Association’s trade consultant, Finn Cottle, has warned the organic movement not to be “elitist” about supermarkets, reports Farmers Weekly.
Cottle told delegates at last month’s Organic Research Centre Annual Producers’ Conference in Birmingham that organics was a niche market with sales of £1.6 billion — £1.3 billion of which went through the big supermarkets. “Without them (the supermarkets), we’d be a very niche market,” she added.
Sticking with the theme, Cottell said: “We have to accept that organic consumers live in big cities and have to rely on big businesses to get what they want. Good food fort all has to be available for all through larger operators and those are big businesses in the form of supermarkets. We cannot afford to be elitist about them.”
