Over the past 10 years, the supply and the demand for organic foods have steadily increased. And — as with all markets — as more organic products move off the shelves, more producers and retailers take note and become interested in making the products more available. In 2001, organic foods constituted almost $5 billion in food sales. A MarketResearch.com estimate projects this year, sales will increase to $13.4 billion, with 51 percent of sales from health and natural food stores and 49 percent from conventional stores.
According to some trade estimates, the sale of organic products has increased by 20 percent each year since 1990, but such goods still make up just 2 percent of the foods that are sold. “The more it becomes available and the more people hear about it, the more companies figure, ‘Here’s a new market that I can get into,’ ” Holly Givens, communications director for the Organic Trade Association, said. “And as people learn more about diets and health issues, and how foods are processed, the more people learn how organic fits in with their desires to have a healthy lifestyle.”
Between 1997 and 2001, the amount of acreage for certified organic pastures and croplands increased by a million to 2.34 million acres, with pastures for milk, chicken and beef production making up the fastest-growing categories.
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