While Spain tops Europe’s ranking for the total acreage of farmland devoted to organic production, it remains at the lower end of organic per capita spending in Western Europe.
That, says David Hedin, a senior consultant at analyst Euromonitor International, means there is “big, unrealised potential” for Spain to quickly gain ground in organics.
Acknowledging that Spain has reported good growth in organic retail sales in recent years (up 12.5% in 2017), Hedin – speaking at this month’s Organic Food Iberia event – wanted to show where the biggest opportunities lay for the Iberian nations.
Looking at organic value shares for key organic categories, Hedin showed that organic was still a comparatively a low performer in Spain for baby food, olive oil and yoghurt; it was stronger in tea, coffee and soft drinks.
Euromonitor forecasts that the good growth seen in Spanish organic retail sales will continue, but notes that it is from a relatively modest baseline.
One of the challenges for the organic sector in Spain is consumer awareness of organic’s benefits. Research conducted by Euromonitor (of around 1000 participants) shows that consumers often perceive ‘natural’ as being more trustworthy than organic. For example, the poll show that more Spanish consumers regard ‘does not contain artificial additives’, ‘respects animal welfare’ and ‘chemical free’ as definitions of ‘natural’ than organic.
Hedin summed up with the following points:
- Big unrealized potential across categories compared to other Western European markets
- Opportunity to use more of local organic produce for the local market
- Best opportunities in olive oil, baby food, grain Based packaged food and 100% Juice
Photo: Euromonitor International’s David Hedin presenting at Organic Food Iberia earlier this month