Retail organic growth a step slower in second quarter, but still easily beats conventional 

Retail organic produce growth took a step back in the second quarter of 2021, but the category performance was still well ahead of conventional produce.

A report published by the Organic Produce Network and prepared by Category Partners using Nielsen data revealed that total organic dollars during the April through June period increased by 4.1% compared with the same period a year ago.

By way of contrast, conventional produce sales in the second quarter declined by 3.3% compared with year-ago levels.

Organic volume was about even with year-ago levels, registering a gain of 0.2% in the second quarter. That was much better than conventional produce, which experienced a decline of 8.6% compared with the same quarter a year ago.

In general, consumers in the second quarter of 2021 were not loading up on food in the same way they did during the early months of the pandemic in 2020.

In the second quarter of 2021, organic produce experienced sales somewhat below the historical long-term growth trend, according to the report.

The vegetable category benefited during the pandemic because more consumers were cooking at home, the report said. Times began to change in the second quarter.

“As the foodservice sector reopened, consumers began to shift some meals back to foodservice channels,” the report said. “The net result in Q2, 2021, is many produce categories had relatively tepid growth when matched against Q2, 2020.”

Organic did comparatively well, the report said, with organic produce still generating dollar and volume growth in the second quarter while conventional produce declined.

Near normal

The report said the pandemic isn’t dominating retail trends as it did in 2020.

“It is apparent that consumer supermarket food purchases increasingly reflect the more traditional buying trends versus COVID-inspired purchasing changes,” the report said. “It is also encouraging that even though consumer purchases of conventional produce were lower than Q2, 2020, organic produce continued to generate growth. This shows that the longer-term trend of consumers moving toward organic produce continues to grow.”

Berry good

The report said berries were the “star organic category” during the second quarter, increasing dollar performance by over 19% and volume by 16%. 

“Berries displaced packaged salads as the No. 1 organic category in dollars for the first time,” the report said. 

Citrus (26.7%), lettuce (2.1%) and tomatoes (1.2%) also delivered volume gains for the quarter. However, multiple strong organic categories had volume declines, the report said, including important organic contributors like packaged salads, apples, herbs and carrots.

Even so, the report said increasing prices in many organic categories helped mitigate volume declines. 

In terms of regional retail organic sales performance, the report said the Northeast region enjoyed a 7.7% dollar growth and 3.6% volume growth in the second quarter.

The normally strong West saw a 0.2% decline in organic sales and a 3.9% volume decline.

The report said the Western performance “is largely a phantom decline” created by comparing against Q2, 2020, when organic sales soared by 17% in dollars and 18% in volume.

“The good news is that setting aside the performance spike that occurred in Q2, 2020, the overall trendline for organic produce volume remained positive,” the report said.