Organic produce has not suffered from the financial crisis. In addition, food crises, such as the horse meat scandal, are working increasingly to its advantage. This is how the Biocoop network explain their good 2013 results.
The cooperative has 345 shops and a €580m turnover, which is more than an 8% increase (excluding the 25 new retail outlets). "Our older shops worked well, sometimes with growth of over 20%" rejoices Gilles Piquet Pellorce, Director General at Biocoop, "we hope to make €650m in sales".
Biocoop's market share has increased to 13% of French organic consumption. This is notably due to large retailers dropping 2 points to 57% of the market.
Growth of the organic market is confirmed by Xerfi who estimate its total for 2013 at €4.1 billion. A trend that analysts believe will continue with a 4.5% growth in 2014, and even 6% in 2015.
However Biocoop did lose 5 retail outlets in 2013, notably to Naturalia.
Biocoop President, Claude Gruffat, reminds us that most of their stock comes from cooperative groups of producers. According to Agence Bio, over 3/4 of organic produce consumed in France is of French origin.
