Sales growth of natural, organic products continues to drop but holds long-term promise

Despite this slow down, industry sales in the US are coming off a stronger base compared to pre-pandemic and set to surpass $300b by 2024 and $400b by 2030 – up from the 7.7% increase in 2021 to $274b, Carlotta Mast, senior vice president and market leader at New Hope, told a packed room of mostly unmasked attendees.

“The COVID boost … to our industry growth was significant in 2020, and we’re continuing to see the impacts of that boost, and we expect that to remain for at least the next four, five years,”Mast said, noting that in 2020 COVID prompted an additional $7b in sales, which “grew” into $11.4b in additional sales in 2021 and is anticipated to drive an additional $10.08b in 2022 and $4.7b in 2023.

Not all of this growth represents increased demand, but rather comes partly from higher prices to offset rising inflation, noted Nick McCoy, managing partner with Whipstitch Capital.

He explained that in 2021 the inflation rate for all food products was 7% and promos dropped about 13%. Among wellness products, however, the average retail price increased only 5% and promotions dropped only 7%.

McCoy argued that this difference suggests some wellness brands may be leaving money on the table – a practice that might be rooted in good intentions to protect consumers, but which could be harming margins.

“I know it is hard … but taking price is what is going to keep our margins in line with those big CPGs that are ultimately buying companies,”he said.

Higher prices do not account for all of the growth, according to Mast who attributed the sales bump in part to consumers “paying more attention to their health and wellness,”“investigating brands,”and “cooking more at home,”which is pushing them to purchase more products that are positioned as natural or as specialty and wellness products versus conventional.

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