Dutch public bought organic products more often last year

Residents of the Netherlands bought an increasing number of organic products last year. Along with greater demand, inflation also played a large part in the rising amount of revenue generated by organic food sales, which grew by 25 percent last year, according to a study by by market research institute GfK.

The turnover in organic products during 2022 was about 1.4 billion euros. The revenue from other foods also increased, but organic sales grew faster, according to GfK. This is partly because more organic vegetables, fruit and dairy products were offered in the supermarkets. Dutch households now buy an organic product an average of 3.1 times per month.

According to director Michaël Wilde of Bionext, this increase in the number of people buying organic products is of great importance in order to ultimately meet the government's goal of organic agriculture representing 15 percent of the industry in 2030. Bionext is the association that represents the organic sector.

Agricultural organization LTO Nederland reported last year that supermarket shoppers opted for the cheapest option instead of the sustainable option more often, mainly a result of declining purchasing power. Bionext also saw a partial stagnation in the purchase of organic goods due to inflation, but there were still enough factors that caused sales to increase overall last year, said Wilde.

"For example, some supermarkets sometimes chose to only offer the organic product, for example only organic milk. That had a positive effect."