Fruits and vegetables are the most sought for among organic food products

In Europe’s leading ‘organic countries’ the consumption of organic products grew by 20-30 percent in the last couple of years – with the exception of 2010 when consumption significantly fell.

According to Péter Rozsik, the managing director of Biokontroll Hungária Nonprofit Kft. organic product consumption growth stopped in Hungary, but it was stable in Germany and even managed to improve in France and Italy. Fruits, vegetables and cereal products remained to be the most popular organic foods, but organic milk also sold really well. Organic farmers are optimistic because several surveys forecast a growth in sales, the signs of which are already visible. Hungary sells 70-80 percent of its organic produces abroad, the bulk of which are base material – processed by the importers and sold as branded products with great profits. Who consume organic products? Conscious, well-informed shoppers; those who have some kind of illness or allergy; pregnant women and mothers of newborn babies. In Hungary Spar was the first to create an ‘organic product island’ in their stores in 1998; now they sell nearly 500 products, half of which are private label ones. Cora also sells about 500 organic products, their number augmented by 40 percent last year. Biopont Kft. has been active for 10 years and is the market leader in Hungary with more than 300 products. Marketing manager Mária Krämer is of the opinion that one of the keys to their success is constant innovation. In February 2011 they appeared in shops with cocoa wafers, but Lolacsemege (mildly salty and chocolate coated puffed millet balls) also started to appear in the units of certain retail chains. Biopont’s margarine will be available in a smaller and more elegant packaging. Mária Krämer also told our magazine that the price of organic products would most probably always be higher than that of ordinary goods, therefore manufacturers’ task is to emphasise the good price/value ratio of these products to consumers. The two main target groups of Biopont Kft. are sport-loving young people (for them they organised the Biopont Autumn Fitness Tour) and small children (the company created the Lolacsemege product family for them, in cooperation with Kriszta D. Tóth, the writer of Lola tales). A special segment of organic products is organic cosmetics, which are now present in drugstores as well. Presto-Pilot Kft. has been an importer and wholesaler of organic products for 5 years. They observed that despite economic recession, the organic cosmetics segment managed to grow last year. In facial care there is great demand for quality products at a reasonable price, bet deodorants and toothpastes are also popular. Product manager Annamária Marinova told Trade magazin that both the number and type of retail channels is growing. The number of potential buyers is also increasing; the company’s primary target group is health conscious women of ABC status in the 30-50 age group. Many women do no even know that this cosmetics category exists, so the first task is making them acquainted with organic cosmetics products.