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Organic sales of fresh fruits and vegetables
have been increasing steadily over the past decade,
but the education has not kept up.
At least this is the view of Mark Mulcahy,
Organic Options, who led a discussion of Organic
Marketing Opportunities at the United
Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association in United in
February. He has been in the organic produce
industry for 20 years starting as the manager of
an all-organic produce department, and now
is a consultant in the industry working with
growers, shippers, wholesalers and retailers.
Mulcahy believes educating the consumer
through the in-store retail clerk is the key to increased
sales. The problem, he said, is that the
produce clerk is basically uninformed about organic
produce. He said even the simple definition
eludes most produce clerks.
He said the product has gone beyond
niche to mainstream but to continue to grow
the consumer needs to be able to make an informed
decision concerning many aspects of
an organic item, including the price differential
and growing practices. Mulcahy said that research
has shown that 38 percent of organic
produce is sold in mass market supermarkets.
About 58 percent is sold in natural food stores
or retailers catering to that market such as Whole
Foods or Wild Oats. Considering the vast majority
of produce is an impulse buy it means
many shoppers are going to traditional stores
and buying organic product on an impulse.
Mulcahy said these same shoppers are the ones
that purchase premium wines and freshly-baked
bread. They are high ticket item shoppers that
the retailer should want to keep in the store,
but they risk losing them if they cannot provide
them with the information that they crave.
In dealing with retailers and walking
through conventional produce departments on
a regular basis, Mulcahy is amazed at the information
he hears about organic produce that is
simply not true. For example, many define organic
produce as “chemical free.” Reading from
the definition in the new federal National Organics
Standards Board, Mulcahy called it an
“ecological produce management system” designed
to promote bio-diversity that relies on
minimal farm inputs. In other words, organic
production is a system, but most people define
it as a product.
He said because it has moved beyond
niche and into mainstream it is suffering the
same problems that are inherent in all growth
industries: information dissemination is not keeping
up with growth. In response to a question
from the audience about where retailers should
get this information, Mulcahy did not have a
ready-made answer. He said that much of the
information must be gleaned from many different
areas. He said his company is in the business
of providing some of this material, but it is
not easily found.
Being a growth industry, Mulcahy said
there are many opportunities open to organic
marketers. For example, he said the field of
fresh-cut organic produce is almost wide open.
One of the drawbacks is that the organic department
in most stores is so small that the retailer
does not have room for many new products.
And when the product line is expanded,
it doesn’t necessarily go in the direction that the
consumer is searching for. For example, speaking
hypothetically he said a packager might offer
an item that contains eight organic lemons.
Though organic lemons might be a product that
a particular consumer would buy, she might
not want eight lemons so she will buy one
lemon in the conventional section instead.
When developing new organic products,
Mulcahy urged those in attendance to keep the
consumer in mind and try to develop consumer-friendly
items.
Though he does see some growth pangs
for the industry, Mulcahy clearly believes organic
produce has a very bright future.
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