Organic Food in High Demand
The demand for organic food has been increasing rapidly over the last couple of years and that trend is expected to continue over the next few years too. A recent article in The Australian on the state of organics in Australia discusses the ever increasing demand for organic produce:
Neil Druce says demand for organic products is outstripping supply. He is backed up by statistics from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corp. It estimates consumption is growing at 25-40 per cent a year, but Australian production ranges at only 6-15 per cent. That lag is occurring despite premiums for organic produce that can be as high as 100 per cent.
Sales of organic food in Australia are estimated at about $500 million a year and are growing at 25-50 per cent a year, according to the Organic Federation of Australia
Suppliers are having difficulties meeting this demand which has resulted in a significant portion of organic foods being imported:
"If you go into shops like Macro, Coles, Woolworths and have a look at the (organic) processed products, the majority now are imported," Leu says.
This hasn’t helped reduce the prices of organic food which is often ridiculously expensive:
At Coles, organic broccoli was last week selling for $11.96 a kilo - more than three times the price of "ordinary" broccoli, priced at $3.48 a kilo.
A 500g jar of organic honey was $6.79, compared to $4.79 for the same amount of conventionally produced Capilano-brand honey, while organic raw sugar was $2.26 kilo, 26 per cent more than regular raw sugar.
Part of the added expense can be explained by the higher costs of organic farming - without chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified crops, yields per hectare are generally lower, resulting in a higher production cost per unit.
It seems Australian farmers need a helping hand to switch to organic growing methods and to get certified, which is a time consuming and, no doubt, expensive process. More Australian organic producers will benefit local consumers as well as the farmers themselves who may find new and lucrative overseas markets. Hopefully we’ll see more certified organic producers in the future to meet the increasing local demand.
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As organic products are increasingly chosen over conventionally grown products, the prices will likely come down.
Austria currently has the highest percentage of organic farming in the world. I noted that, while traveling in Austria, the organically grown fruits and vegetables I purchased were less expensive than the conventional varieties I bought at home in the U.S. (gas, however, was double).
It will just take each of us choosing organic for health!
Lynne Eldridge M.D.
Author, “Avoiding Cancer One Day At A Time”
http://www.avoidcancernow.com
I think Europe in general is producing a lot of organic produce (relatively) and more farms are converting all the time.
I wish Australia was a leader in this area but we seem so far behind other nations.
Thanks for stopping by.
I think quite possibly if anyone got a list of fertilizers, pestacides,antibiotics,hormones,chemicals etc of what was in their food when they bought it perhaps the price wouldn’t bother them so much. Organic food IS more nutritious if you stockpiled the evidence; For organic far outways conventional food which is grown in soil depleted of nutrients put back in with fertilizers and the process just gets worse from there. Need I mention the fruit vegetables and meat are not the original versions. each of thje before mentioned have been altered. Whether it be cross pollination, breading, gene selecting(not modified). Let me give you an example; tomatoes have been changed from the original to someting else that will be readily picked weeks before ripening stage, pack and travel well, and respond apropriately to sprays that tell it when to start ripening just before it hits the shelf. Ask yourself why your carrots are sooo orange in the last couple of years. They are almost flourecent.
I know what you mean about tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes are in season where I am at the moment and they are so delicious, not at all like modern varieties. They are very fragile so need to be eaten quickly but obviously they are best that way anyway.