Organic products get their own platform for the first time

With its wide international product range of confectionery and snack items, the International Sweets and Biscuits Fair (ISM) in Cologne is the most important trend indicator for buyers and decision-makers from the trade. Around 1,600 exhibiting companies from about 70 countries will be presenting what's new in their segment at the 38th ISM in Cologne from 27th to 30th January 2008. One of the trends is organic products, which are continuing to gain in importance within the confectionery sector. Suppliers of organically produced and processed confectionery and snack items will therefore for the first time have their own presentation platform within the trade fair. The "Organic Avenue" in Hall 11.2 will offer a concentrated presentation of this growth segment. The platform will be enhanced by an attractive special show on the topics of packaging and marketing and a programme of presentations.

The organic segment has obviously been continuing its rapid growth in Germany in 2007. After the market volume of €2.05 billion in 2000 had more than doubled to €4.6 billion last year, the current TrendNavigator from ACNielsen noted continued strong growth in the first half of 2007. During the first six months of 2007, sales of organic products in selected product groups increased by 28% in the retail food trade (not including discount chains) and by 70% for the discount chains. Almost every second euro spent on organic produce in Europe today is spent in the retail food trade, which has thus become the largest sales channel for organic products.

The incorporation of organic products into the ranges of almost all food retailers and the expansion of the range of organic products available are the most important reasons behind this increase. Confectionery is also benefiting from all this activity. The proportion of organic products in the total turnover of sweet baked goods in the retail food trade including Aldi doubled from 1.1% in the first half of 2006 to 2.3% in 2007, according to the ACNielsen TrendNavigator. The leader in the product groups studied was the vegetable juices, where organic products already accounted for 26.1% of turnover (in the first half of 2006: 22.2%) in the retail food trade, followed by muesli with 15.9% (14.1%) and vegetable spreads with a share of 12.1% of organic products in the total retail food range.

Based on the development of turnover in the product groups flour, muesli, biscuits, pasta, frozen vegetables and vegetable spreads, ACNielsen also concludes that when it comes to organic segments, brands as a whole are growing faster than own brands, albeit from a rather low starting point. In the first half of 2007 brands grew overall by 39.5%, while sales of own brands increased by 32.4% by comparison with the same period of the previous year.

The market researchers from ACNielsen see potential for organic quality "across the board" in the retail food trade. The exploitation of this potential is, of course, subject to the natural limits imposed by the availability of certified organic produce.

Moreover, an online study of consumer behaviour in 2007 carried out among people who purchase organic products showed that health factors are the primary influence on the decision to purchase organic foods. A total of 47% of those surveyed cited "it's healthier for me" as a reason for the purchase; in the global figures, 58% of consumers of organic foods gave this as a reason. The second most-important reason - "It's better for my children" - was cited in 16% of the responses, while 11% of participants in Germany and 14% of the global purchasers of organic foods gave "It's better for the environment" as a motive.

The most frequent reason for not purchasing organic products given by those people surveyed in Germany who never purchase organic products was the price. A total of 54% of those asked gave the high price as an argument for not purchasing, 16% said they were "not convinced" and 30% gave other reasons. At 82%, the average price difference between organic and conventional products in the sweet baked goods sector was one of the largest. Organic flours are around 104% more expensive than conventional products, while the price difference for yoghurt is just 14%. For muesli it is 33% and for milk 49%.

An overview of the season's new products in the baked goods segment shows that organic variants of existing conventional products are by no means the only ones being launched. Premium raw materials that have scarcely played a role in the traditional baked goods market such as amaranth, spelt, millet and Jerusalem artichoke have been attracting substantial attention. Examples include spelt cookies for children, spelt-fruit hearts, crunchy spelt-millet rings, spelt biscotti with almonds or soft spelt-amaranth biscuits.

In recent years, new and interesting developments in organic foods have taken place in all segments of the confectionary industry, and hundreds of companies now feature organic confectionery in their product ranges. The special show "Organic Avenue" at ISM 2008 will offer an impression of the tremendous creativity and innovative power in this area.

The organisers of ISM are Koelnmesse and the International Sweets and Biscuits Fair Working Group (AISM), which is the conceptual sponsor.

Source: Sweets Global Network e.V.

More information is available on the Internet at:
www.ism-cologne.de (www.ism-cologne.com)

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