SHELTON, Conn.—According to a study by TABS Group, a marketing, research and consulting firm, organic foods continue to be niche products. "Identical to last year, only 38 percent of adults claim to have purchased anything from the major organic categories in the last six months," said TABS Group President and Founder, Dr. Kurt Jetta.
According to the study, organic fresh fruit had the highest purchase incidence at 26 percent, with organic fresh vegetables close behind at 25 percent. Organic dairy products, and eggs and milk, were cited for purchase by 17 percent and 16 percent of U.S. adults, respectively. Frozen organic products, including vegetables, fruit and ice cream, had low purchase levels at 5 percent to 7 percent.
The study found that traditional supermarkets were the preferred outlets for these products compared to natural food stores by a margin of 39 percent to 27 percent. Jetta noted, however, that while there were 50% more organic shoppers at traditional outlets than natural food outlets, there are 20 to 30 times more of these outlets.
"When we see a dynamic that says that it takes a 20-fold increase in store count to generate a 50 percent increase in buyer count, we conclude that the vast majority of retailers with a broad assortment of these products are seeing very low returns on their investment," commented Dr. Jetta. "We can only hope that the mainstream retailers and manufacturers stop marching in lockstep to this illusory 'trend' and refocus their efforts on more mainstream categories and products. There is a role for a modest selection of organic products in their store, but they should accept that the natural food markets are better positioned to service the needs of the organic shopper."