Foodsectornews.com - Consumer Fervor Driving the Organic Foods Market in Canada, Survey Finds

Consumer Fervor Driving the Organic Foods Market in Canada, Survey Finds

Tuesday, 19 June 2007

Driven by consumer fervor, the Canadian organic food market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.41% over the period spanning 2007-2011.

In its recent report on "World Organic Foods And Beverages Report (2006)" RNCOS has found that the Canadian organic food market is expected to grow at a CAGR value of almost 17.41% for the period spanning 2007-2011.

According to the data in a report that Certified Organics released on May 14, 2007, more than 50% of Canadian households purchased organically grown food during 2006. The most significant reason behind this switchover was Canadians’ worry regarding the presence of pesticides & fertilizers in conventionally grown foods.

Organic food & farming sector of Canada is less advanced in comparison to that of the US and various EU nations. After a surge of interest during late 1980s, govt. research & support in this sector has gone down. Though the industry continued to expand but quite sluggishly.

There were about 3,618 certified growers of organic food/crop in Canada during 2005, and another 241 are in the process of transforming their traditional farms in to organic, says the Organic Growers Association of Canada. Above 530,000 hectares of land exclusively cultivates organic food, and the largest crop is wheat.

Of the US$ 46 Billion in nation’s grocery banner sales during 2006, sales of Certified Organic food accounted for US$ 412 Million, a 31% up from 2005, as per the Certified Organic Report.

During April 2007, Nice, major organic-soy beverage brand of Canada, conducted a survey according to which about 65% of consumers have already migrated to organic-foods partly or nearly half (47%) affirmed their organic products’ consumption to have increased over the last two years (2005-06).

RNCOS report on "World Organic Foods And Beverages Report (2006)" notifies, “Organic food market in Canada generated US$ 1.4 Billion in revenues during the year 2006, representing a CAGR of 23.36% for the period spanning 2002-2006. Imported products are estimated to have made up more than 85% of organic-food consumed in the country during 2005. Majority of organically produced commodities in Canada is exported, particularly true of gain and soybean crops.”