Sweden’s lead organic body KRAV put all options on the table when it launched a major stakeholder consultation on its future direction earlier this year. The process has even included considering withdrawing from the EU Organic Regulation, KRAV CEO Anita Falknek confirmed in a special presentation at last week’s Nordic Organic Food event in Malmö.
The background to the consultation is the changing consumer climate around health and sustainability. “People are looking for healthy food, but they’re also looking for vegetarian, vegan, or free-from products,” said Falknek. “They are also concerned about where food is sourced, and how and where it is grown and made. Local is an important priority. I think that’s a kind of security – which is completely understandable.”
‘Local’ clearly resonates for Swedes. Falknek points out that the new Från Sverige (From Sweden) label “has gone from 0-8000 Från Sverige labelled products in just two years – that’s as many KRAV.”
While the KRAV label starts from a position of strength (it commands a remarkable 98% consumer recognition rating and has played a key role in getting organic to its impressive 9% share of Sweden’s food and drink market) it is now frequently having to compete with the widely used ‘Eko’ term (a generic organic label)
“It is an increasingly fragmented picture, with multiple labels and schemes competing for the same consumers,” Falknek explained. “In Sweden we have health labels, Fairtrade, FSC, KRAV, Rainforest Alliance and supermarket private label organic schemes – all wanting to widen their presence. And many Swedish consumers say that it’s a jungle out there.”
As part of its consultation KRAV asked consumers a set of 30 questions about what is important to then personally about the food they eat. “I have to tell you that organic came pretty low down the list of priorities,” said Falknek. “The top priority was that food must taste good. Food also should be high quality, have high animal welfare standards and be good for the environment. Of course, these are all organic attributes, but people don’t necessarily equate them with organic.”
“The EU Regulation, and the current revision process, are creating a lot of hurdles for us, and for organic production in Sweden”
The likelihood seems to be that KRAV will continue to be aligned with the EU rules on organic (the final results of the consultation will published next month) – not least because the EU regulates the use of the word organic itself (withdrawal from the EU scheme would mean having to use an different term). But Falknek told her audience in Malmö that KRAV will push hard for improvements in the Regulation. “The EU Regulation, and the current revision process, are creating a lot of hurdles for us, and for organic production in Sweden. We are very worried about the Regulation in its present form and we are working behind the scenes to ensure that Sweden will vote to the draft.”
Falknek closed her talk with a call for all like-minded organic, sustainability and social responsibility groups to work together. “It makes so much sense because collectively we have a louder voice and a better chance of realising our shared vision for the future.”