A Taste of Wellness for Savoury and Snacks
Givaudan
Organic meat producers in Scandinavia are stepping up export activities as consumer demand stabilises and market growth rates slow in the region, write market analysts Organic Monitor.
According to a new report, although organic meat sales in Scandinavia increased by 9.2 per cent to €298 million in 2002, this compares to expansion in the organic meat products market by over 20 per cent per annum in the late 1990s.
Scandinavian organic meat revenues are projected to expand by 35.3 per cent to €403 million in 2009. Organic Monitor suggests that the market drivers will be marketing campaigns by supermarkets and lower retail prices. The highest growth will be in the organic beef segment, which is projected to take a 5 per cent share of beef sales at the end of the forecast period.
In total, there are 723,000 hectares of organic farmland in Scandinavia, representing 9.4 per cent of total agricultural land. Sweden accounts for over half of the organic farmland in the region, with a large number of organic livestock farmers in Denmark and Sweden. But by comparison, low conversion subsidies, stringent organic livestock production standards and low consumer demand mean that in Finland there are very few organic meat producers.
The Organic Monitor report found the supply-side for organic meat to be highly concentrated in each country. Large meat companies dominate, using their marketing and distribution infrastructure for conventional meat products to alleviate excess capacity to export markets. Denmark is the largest exporter with roughly 20 per cent of Danish organic meat volumes sold outside the country. In addition to Europe, Danish companies have made successful inroads into the American and Japanese organic meat markets.