Organic Ingredients: A Creative Approach to Increased Sales

Fueling continued growth in the organic sector will take creativity and open-mindedness, especially when it comes to organic ingredients and how they are used and marketed. That’s the advice coming from three leaders in the organic ingredient field, speaking at the Organic Produce Summit in Monterey, last month.

“Organic has a 23 share of packaged salad business right now,” said Bryan Jaynes, vice president product management and marketing at Taylor Farms, and that is a big deal for a company behind one in every three bagged salads consumed in the United States. "Salads are a great organic growth story, but things are not all rosy,” he says, “as growth has slowed, our deli division does very little organic and consumer demand for organic salad kits is not what we thought it would be.” Given that, Jaynes says Taylor Farms is looking at the “made with organic” trend – products that are not 100 percent organic but made with organic ingredients.

Bryan Jaynes, vice president of product management and marketing for Taylor Farms

Lisa McNeece, vice president industrial sales for Grimmway Farms, sees challenges, but also many opportunities. “We see growth on the commodity side, providing some of those organic ingredients to the Taylors of the world and others,” she says. “We own and farm more than 40,000 organic acres. So, we are in total control.”

McNeece sees a lot opportunity with snacks – products like kale chips, beet chips, and carrot chips with organic ingredients at the forefront. She says parents are demanding these types of products and they want organic to make sure their kids are eating healthy snacks. McNeece says the industry must be creative when thinking about organic products.

“Cosmetics, pet food, savory desserts, baby food, meal kits – really the sky is the limit,” she says and for emphasis adds, “Can you imagine an organic carrot hot dog? A roasted carrot hotdog with ethnic herbs and spices. It’s possible if you keep an open mind.”

OPS 2018 Organic Ingredient session attendees.

 As Vice President of Sustainability and Marketing for Tradin Organic, Joost Hamelink has a global perspective on the organic ingredient business. Tradin Organic is a global front runner in organic ingredients, focusing on unique sourcing all over the world. Tradin sales are evenly divided between Europe and the United States, and Hamelink believes that trends overseas can sometimes be a good predictor of coming trends here.

In Europe, he says, they are seeing more superfoods---like chia seeds and goji berries---being used in ready made salad kits; more plant-based proteins especially algae and seaweed; and more products with zero added sugars and salt. On the sustainability side, Hamelink believes consumers are becoming more demanding, and retailers are responding. Looking to reduce food waste, some retailers are now marketing ‘ugly ingredients’ – products like crooked cucumbers and funny looking carrots offered at a lower price.  Hamelink also thinks the zero plastics movement will dramatically change the way the industry does business.

“This year the main organic retailer in the Netherlands is opening a plastic free aisle in all their supermarkets and they even opened a completely plastic free pop up supermarket in Amsterdam this year. This is going to be a big shift because these retailers are dedicated to becoming 100 percent plastic free. They are very close to achieving that and when they do they will turn their eyes on the supply chain.” said Hamelink.

Joost Hamelink, vice president of sustainability and marketing for Tradin Organic

Whether or not all these trends show up here remains to be seen, but Taylor Farms already sees sustainability as key to their organic business. VP Jaynes said, “Sustainability is one of our big priorities. We think there is a big connection between the organic customer and sustainability - social, financial, and environmental - People, profit, planet. We are going to continue to drive sustainability.”