Organic growth continues

SALES OF ORGANIC food are now worth more than £1.12bn to UK retailers, The Guardian reports.

It cites figures from the Soil Association showing that organic food sales increased by more than 10% last year although the amount of food sold through supermarkets fell by 1%.

This reveals, according to the paper, that customers increasingly prefer to buy their produce from a more direct source – either at farmers markets or through box schemes.

Sales in this sector have risen by 16% to £108m.

The global market for organic food is estimated to be worth £15bn.

The European market for organic food is £7.2bn.

The number of registered organic farmers was 3,995 in April 2004, according to the Organic Food and Farming Report, 2004.

About 55% of the UK’s organically managed land is in Scotland, with 373,249 hectares across 683 farms.

This accounts for almost 7% of Scotland’s agricultural land. The rest of the UK has an average of 4% organic farmland, according to the Soil Association.