What's Really Growing Global Organic Trade

The first of two educational sessions featuring insights and trends for organic fresh produce production and marketing across the globe, began with an overview of the $103 billion global organic market that has seen 14 percent compound annual growth for the past five years.

(from left to right) Fernando Rojas, Mimmo Franzone, Nick Kikilan, and Chris Ford

According to session moderator Gina Garven, vice president commercial development and analytics for Robinson Fresh, North America holds the lion’s share of global organic sales at $48 billion, with the EU not far behind at $42 billion. The Asian market at $11 billion is growing the fastest as consumption grows.

“Latin America and Africa have only just began tracking fresh organic sales, so the data isn’t as reliable," she said.

The session’s panelists highlighted what’s driving their growth of organic fresh produce.

Moderator Gina Garven

Fernando Rojas organic fresh produce buyer at PriceSmart, a membership-based sales organization with 43 locations in Central America, Columbia and the Caribbean, said growth in their markets can be attributed to new formats that highlight organic including videos in the stores. “We are teaching our consumers about organic and telling the story of the growers at store level,” he said. 

Mimmo Franzone, director of produce at Longo Brothers Fruit Markets in Canada, said “We want to create an OMNI channel experience. In urban areas we offer four-hour deliveries with tens of thousands of SKU’s. Our online delivery business allows us to tell the story, with farmer features and recipes,” he said.   “We also have a strong customer loyalty program. With this we can target our consumers specifically based on their buying trends.”

Nick Kukulan, President of Paramount Export Company, has 48 years’ experience in produce in Latin America and Asia. He said there is huge potential for high quality organic products in Asia, Singapore and Taiwan have major organic consumption.

“China also has great potential with a billion people that are concerned about contamination. But the Chinese Government only recognizes Chinese organic certification so it’s tough to export there.  Japan also has a high risk of fumigation,” Kukulan said.

Chris Ford, organic and food service category manager at Oppy, offered advice on the promotion of organic fresh produce.  “Celebrate and buy in what’s seasonal - you can impact the consumers decision with placement of product and creating excitement around flavor and seasonality,” he said.

Franzone agreed, saying “the mainstream consumer is more educated now and millennials are driving the growth. They want traceability, safety and digital platforms that increase that education and transparency.

“We are always trying to reduce packaging in our stores because consumer wants less plastic but it’s a tough balance to preserve the quality of the product with sustainable packaging,” Franzone said.

Ford is excited about innovation in the organic produce arena, “There are exciting post-harvest applications of food products that improve the preservation during long transit times. It will be emerging technologies like those that come from food waste products that will give the consumer a better experience while reducing shrink,” he said.

“Imagine if we could someday ship produce unrefrigerated and reduce global emissions. Technologies like these will accelerate over the next few decades.”