Organic fresh produce sales totaled $9.22 billion last year, up 5.5% from $8.54 billion in 2020, when the market grew 14.2%, according to the 2021 Organic Produce Performance Report, released this week by the Organic Produce Network and Category Partners.
By volume, organic fresh produce unit sales rose about 2% to 3.09 billion in 2021, for a 7% unit market share, following a 16% gain in units for 2020.
In terms of fresh produce market share, organic saw only slight growth in 2021 versus 2020, when the segment had a 12% dollar share and a 6.6% unit share.
Three categories — packaged salads, berries and apples — accounted for 40% of dollar sales and two-thirds of all organic fresh produce dollar growth in 2021.
Organic berries showed sizable price premiums versus conventional berries, at $3.01 per pound for blackberries $2.18 per pound for blueberries and $2.52 per pound for raspberries.
“While a gap remains in the average retail price per pound between organic and conventional, the price increases in both categories last year were remarkably similar,” according to Steve Lutz, senior vice president of Insights and Innovation at Category Partners, a perishables market researcher based in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
The berries, watermelon and citrus categories proved to be the main organic produce growth catalysts in unit volume last year, OPN noted.
All four geographic regions of the country saw modest single-digit dollar sales growth for organic fresh produce during 2021, led by the South at $2.86 billion .
OPN added that the 2021 fourth quarter marked the eighth straight quarter of organic fresh produce sales growth, up 4.9% year over year to $2.7 billion.
“Sales of organic produce in 2021, while up a bit less than expected, remain on par with the historical long-term growth trends we have come to expect for organic produce,” Lutz observed.