The organic food market in Australia has grown exponentially in the last few years, with year-on-year growth of around 20 per cent. As an early adopter of organic produce, Woolworths accounts for about 60 per cent of the entire organic market. And now the supermarket chain has launched the Woolworths Organic Growth Fund to help meet the growing consumer demand for organic produce.
Despite the growth of the organic market in Australia in recent years, there is still room for improvement organic makes up less than one per cent of overall product sales in Australia. This is in comparison to more developed organic markets overseas, with organic food in the UK comprising eight per cent of total sales.One of the reasons for the low organic market share in Australia is that there is not enough supply of organic produce to meet con-sumer demand. In order to help grow this supply, Woolworths re-cently launched the Woolworths Organic Growth Fund a $30 mil-lion, five-year investment fund that will provide interest-free loans and grants to help organic Australian fruit and vegetable growers.
“The motivation for the Woolworths Organic Growth Fund is to position Woolworths at the forefront of the organic boom and help the industry to grow,” says Paul Turner, Wool-worths Head of Produce. “It’s an industry that is very much in its infancy in Australia and a long way from meeting the level of customer demand.”
To read the full article published on The Australian Farmer, click HERE.
