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U.S. organic produce sales reached $22 billion in 2022. In 2023, sales of organic berries, prepackaged salads, lettuce, onions and tomatoes saw gains compared to the previous year.
Demand grows for organic produce, despite inflation
By Bob Johnson The prospects for organic produce re- main strong in these inflationary times, according to leaders of some of the largest grower-shipper operations. Market strength varies, however, de- pending on which commodities growers are trying to sell. “The category is going to grow based on consumer demand,” said Nishan Moutafian, vice president of production at Driscoll’s in Watsonville. While organic berry growers enjoy strong demand, organic vegetable growers find demand varies depending on the product. “We feel there is a lot of opportunity on the value-added side,” said Joe Pezzini, se- nior director of agricultural operations at Taylor Farms in Salinas. “The value-added side will continue to grow; it depends on innovation. The commodity side is flat.” Moutafian and Pezzini made their re- marks during a grower roundtable on the state of organic farming during the Organic Grower Summit in Monterey last November. The summit was co-sponsored by Western Growers Association and the Organic Produce Network, a 6-year-old organization created to bring together or- ganic produce retailers and growers large enough to supply them. Statistics gathered by the Category Partners farm market data firm highlight- ed the strongest organic growth categories. The firm noted that organic berry sales in- creased nearly 7% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year, while organic prepackaged salads were up 5.4%.
Sales of organic lettuce, onions and to- matoes were all up less than 4% year over year, while sales of organic celery, squash and peaches were down. Taylor Farms already has a value-add- ed program in place, but shippers that are relatively new to the value-added category must navigate questions of how to invest. “During COVID, we saw a huge jump in value-added products,” said Briana Giampaoli, organic category manager at Merced County-based Live Oak Farms in LeGrand. “We’re looking at more val- ue-added products, but it requires risk at first to learn what equipment to buy.” Live Oak Farms grows and ships large volumes of tomatoes and peppers. Moutafian and Pezzini agreed that maintaining a reliable supply 12 months of the year is essential for strong sales. “The majority of consumers who buy organic are making that choice in the store,” Moutafian said. “Reliability is a key to getting good placement in the produce department.” Growers need cooperation of seed com- panies if they are to provide a steady supply of organic produce. “In some commodities, like spinach, a lot of effort has been put into disease resistance,” Pezzini said. “In some other commodities, we need the seed compa- nies to put more emphasis on disease and pest resistance.” Driscoll’s breeds its own berry varieties and conducts trials on organic ground to test disease resistance. “Our breeding for See ORGANIC, Page 12
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