Opportunities and barriers for Irish organic produce

Michael Hussey, Senior Manager Alcohol & Seafood

Bord Bia undertook a trade insight study to investigate the current realities in domestic and overseas organic products across all categories, within seafood the focus was on mussels and salmon.

The purpose of the study was to understand the opportunities and barriers for Irish organic produce in the domestic market, established and also emergent export markets.

The established markets included Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK and for these the highest overall reliance on imports of organic is within cereals/grains, fruit and veg, and seafood.  The emergent markets, whereby the organic market will be larger in the future, included China, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE and USA.

For each, market understanding covers the current organic landscape, category dynamics, future dynamics and forecast sizing. Pricing margins are also explored and in general, the premium for organic is between 10-50% above conventional for the major categories of vegetables, dairy and cereals, but can be up to 50-100% for seafood. In addition,the report identifies the pricing differentials that exist between the different claims of organic, MSC/Sustainable and line-caught seafood.

Short term opportunities for Irish exports of mussels and salmon point to France and Germany as both markets are worth over €500 million in consumption and France in particular having a high growth forecast of CAGR 8.7% for 2020 – 2025. Austria and Italy also point to opportunities albeit on a small scale. Taking a longer term view, the report points to interesting opportunities in the USA which is the largest of the emergent markets.

For further information, please contact info@bordbia.ie