Ocean Mist Farms is seeing strong growth in year-over-year performance of several of its organic commodities, said Katie Tossie, organic commodity account manager for the Castroville, Calif.-based marketer.
“Our organic artichoke program remains very strong as we continue to see year-over-year (sales),” Tossie said. “We’ve also seen some significant growth in our organic iceberg and celery programs.”
Consumers are still focused on protecting their health through what they eat, she said, and that is positive for organics.
“As we continue to maneuver through COVID times, people remain focused on what they are putting into their bodies,” Tossie said. “I believe that will remain the trend through 2022.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge for organic growers is inflation in the price of inputs, she said.
“The rising cost over all aspects, be it growing cost, fertilizer, packaging and freight, (seems) to be our biggest challenge currently,” Tossie said. “We continue to look at ways to help mitigate these costs. Along with rising costs, pest pressure continues to present its challenges.”
