The market for Italian organic food and drinks is currently worth €4.9 billion, with sales set to increase by 12% in 2017, reports La Repubblica.
Of this total, €3 billion are sales achieved in Italy, and the remaining €1.9 billion comes from exports to foreign markets.
Italy is the leading organic market in Europe, and the second largest in the world behind the United States.
The most popular organic products are eggs from non-caged hens, followed by jams, milk-based vegetable drinks, fruits and vegetables.
Italian Trends
Nearly nine out of ten Italians claim to have purchased at least one organic product in the last year. The number of Italian companies in the sector has reached 72,000, with around 300,000 employees.
The area of land that is cultivated to comply with organic criteria has also increased. Italy is currently at 14.5%, not far behind the leading countries Austria and Sweden, which both have around 20%.
According to data from Bio Bank, from 2001 to 2016, the number of large Italian retailers with their own private label organic brand has grown from 9 to 22, while the number of products has increased from 644 to 2,857.
The leaders in terms of the number of own brand organic products are Coop (480), Esselunga (300), and Carrefour (250). The number of specialised stores has reached 1,423, up 12% over the past four years.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
