Competitive prices, health trends and long-term programs coming into fruition are some main reasons why U.S. produce company 4Earth Farms has seen phenomenal sales growth in its organic produce items recently. 

The organization made its organic division a priority about three years ago, but it was only 18 months ago when it began to get traction in the market.

4Earth Farms vice president of sales and marketing Mark Munger told www.freshfruitportal.com the company's initial achievements in growing sales spurred on further growth.

"As we began to achieve success we found that there were other organic growers who were looking for strategic sales partners. So the success has helped feed some success," Munger said.

"Now we really have grown our organic line to a very significant number of items and it just continues to build on itself.

"We're seeing tremendous demand on the retail side, and again that just continues to help us strengthen the program, continue to get out there and collaborate with additional growers and additional farmland."

Munger said currently between 30%-40% of the company's sales came from organic produce, but the figure would reach 50% in the very near future.

"At the pace that it's going it may well hit that mark within the next year to two years," he said, adding that organics were not 4Earth Farms' sole focus.

"Our intent is to continue to grow our conventional programs as well – we've got a lot of customers who are mostly focused on those.

"But the two go together hand-in-hand and most of our growers are not entirely organic growers or entirely conventional - they're mixed - and so it really plays into our partnerships."

Some retailers ditching certain conventional produce lines

Although 4Earth Farms has enjoyed 'growth across the board' on all organic produce items, the most rapid growth has been seen in the so-called 'super nutrient' vegetables like kale, Brussels sprouts, green beans and sugar snap peas - although the latter are very tought to cultivate organically.

The increasing consumer demand for organic produce has led to a higher availability in the supermarkets, which has in turn caused more price competition to a certain degree.

Munger said that while the more attractive prices had helped boost sales, it was important to provide good returns to the company's growers, especially given the higher risk and level of patience involved with organic farming.

"We have to keep the organic growers healthy, and so we still try and fight to make sure that we return the growers back to the farm a profitable price," he said.

"But we are seeing there's a lot more competition, and we're seeing several vegetable items where the price has gotten down to be very similar to conventional price. A lot of times when the happens the retailers will simply make the switch.

"We've even seen cases with some retailers where they were carrying a conventional item but aren't any more - they're only carrying the organic version, so that's when we see tremendous sales growth."

New organic item 'every week'

Asked what the underlying reason was for the increase in demand for organic produce in the U.S., Munger said there was a 'wide range of perspectives' in the population.

"There are some that are doing it for the sustainability because their belief is that it's better for the environment and their families," he said.

"I think there's some that are just following general health trends and are interested in helping reduce our dependence on pesticides.

"We're expecting the trend to continue."

He added an increasing number of supermarkets were making a 'big commitment' to grow their organic programs, and this had resulted in more 'crossover' shoppers.

"Maybe 60% of what a lot of people put in their shopping carts is conventionally grown, but they're also throwing in organically grown as it becomes more and more available and more competitively priced versus conventional."

4Earth Farms has no plans to slow down its growth in organic sales, and will continue to add more produce into the mix, especially tree fruit.

It is also one of six U.S. companies who will grow and market the kale-Brussels spouts hybrid called 'Kalettes', developed by U.K.-based Tozer Seeds.

"We still have a very steep learning curve on that one, but that's going to be a new item that we're going to add," Munger said, mentioning that right now the company was setting its sights on the upcoming season.

"We're working on a lot of the winter squash items now, trying to get more of those items into organic as we're starting to look at the fall," he said.

"It looks like every week we're bringing in another item that we can make organic, so we're just going to continue to make that move."

Photo: 4Earth Farms

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