In a context of an overall decline in food consumption over the past year, sales of organic food products fell for the first time in eight years.
Over the year as a whole, the organic market represented 13.27 billion euros in sales, down 0.5% over one year including catering. This erosion occurs in a context of an overall drop of 2.28% in household food consumption, according to data published by the Agence bio, the national agency responsible for promoting this mode of production. However, organic remains stable in market share, even going from 6.57% in 2020 to 6.63% in 2021.
In detail, this decline in sales primarily concerns organic products outside France. Imports fell by 1.7 points over one year to fall below a third of total sales. Apart from exotic products, “produced in France” now represents more than 80% of organic products sold.
Moreover, this decline was especially more marked depending on the distribution networks. Sales in supermarkets, which account for around 50% of sales of organic products, fell by around 250 million euros over one year. In the specialized networks, sales were down 1.8%. However, consumption shifted in part to artisan-traders, as well as to direct sales to producers, up 5.8% and 7.9% respectively.
As for out-of-home catering, it continues to grow, with an increase of more than 20% over one year, an increase which concerns in particular collective catering, a consequence in particular of the Egalim law, which requires canteens to offer 20% organic in the plates.