What's the story with organic produce? When Walmart announced earlier this year it was to stock hundreds of products with organic roots, few people believed the biggest retailer in the world did so out of a suddenly discovered sense of eco-friendliness.
Working in the most intensely competitive market in the world, the suits in Walmart's Arkansas headquarters were aware that there was a growing appetite among its customers for food that hadn't been drenched in pesticides, stuffed with antibiotics and drained of all flavour.
It is not just in the US where increased consumer demand is forcing the hand of supermarkets. Last year in Britain, shoppers spent £1.6 billion (€2.4 billion) on organic food - up 30 per cent on the previous year. Sales of organic food are rising at the rate of £7m (€10.5 million) a week in Tesco and a quarter of its customers buy at least one organic product on each visit. Marks & Spencer currently stocks 200 organic items and plans to double that number next year.
IN IRELAND, ORGANIC food is becoming increasingly commonplace. Superquinn, for example, now stocks more than 100 organic products, half of which are in its fruit and vegetable section. There has been a 15 per cent increase in the store's organic fruit and veg range in the last year and organics now make up 3.5 per cent of the store's total fruit and vegetable sales.
Anne Nugent, nutritionist at Superquinn, attributes the growth of the sector in Ireland to increased disposable income, increased health fears, greater concern about the environment and more food awareness. She says that from a health perspective, the main concerns about non-organic food are levels of pesticide residues, but in terms of nutrition "most current scientific evidence says there is no evidence in nutritional terms".
Consumers here now spend an estimated €66 million on certified organic food products each year. Production is set to grow significantly over the next five years, according to a study commissioned by Bord Bia, which kicks off its second National Organic Week today.
It certainly has room to grow. There are now 35,266 hectares of Irish land converted to organic production, or approximately one per cent of all arable land.
WHILE THE BIG retailers' conversion to the organic creed may be welcomed and may drive prices down, many long-time advocates of organic food believe their move into what has long been a niche market will ultimately damage the sector. They fear chain stores will place unrealistic demands on small producers leading to a fall-off in standards.
In recent weeks Britain's Soil Association, which oversees the sector, has been accused of diluting standards to keep in with the supermarkets. It has drawn fierce criticism from purists for saying that some salmon farms could be considered organic. Critics say the only organic salmon is a wild salmon and by allowing fish kept in cages on farms to be classified as organic mocks the first principles of organic farming. The Soil Association has stoutly rejected the charges that it is presiding over a serious slip in standards.
The majority of Irish consumers' organic spend goes into the cash registers of the big supermarkets, while just 16 per cent of organic food is purchased through direct sellers such as farmers' markets, farm shops, health food stores, box schemes and butchers.
According to Bord Bia, only 40 per cent of consumers agreed that it was easy to find locally produced organic food. The other 60 per cent might consider going online where Josef Finke, a pioneer of organic farming in Ireland, is selling an impressive range of products through his website www.ballybrado.com.
While the food on the site is not cheap, it might be better value than you think. PriceWatch went shopping there last week and a basket of 15 items, including bread, meat, milk and wine, cost approximately €65. A broadly similar basket of non-organic items in Tesco cost €51.
Finke has been farming organically in Ireland for 23 years and has been selling and delivering his produce and the produce of other organic farmers via his website for a year and a half. He accepts that there is a price difference but does not believe that it should be the only thing people consider when deciding on the foods they buy.
"Price is only one parameter and it is often insufficient," he says. "We are used to putting a price tag on to anything, but the question remains, how valid is a price comparison in assessing the real difference between two products?
"You are not comparing like with like. An organic apple and a conventionally produced apple may look they same and the conventionally produced apple may be 20 per cent cheaper. But when you take the extra water out of the conventional apple the prices are suddenly broadly similar and when you compare the level of nutrients in the organic apple it suddenly starts to seem like better value."
INEVITABLY, BECAUSE OF the high costs associated with its production, meat was the biggest expense in the PriceWatch organic shopping basket. Of all the organic products on the market, however, it may be here where it might work out better for you to spend more.
While bacon can be bought for as little as €7.50 in big supermarkets, on the Ballybrado website organic rashers cost closer to €25 per kg. Finke accepts the price difference is substantial "but do you really think you are comparing like with like?" he asks. He paints a grim picture of some conventional piggeries which he accuses of "ethically very questionable practices and keeping conditions" resulting in flavourless, watery, antibiotic-filled rashers making it onto your plate.
Teresa Brophy of Bord Bia accepts that while its brief is the whole sector it is committed to promoting awareness both among consumers and among prospective producers. "The key thing with the organic sector is that we are trying to encourage more producers to get involved and to let producers know that there is a market there. If more growers are to get into the area of organic food they need training and they need help marketing their products. That's our role."
