MONTEREY, CA - The impacts of inflation are still being felt in the food sector, including the organic fresh produce category. With its recent Q1 2023 Organic Produce Performance Report, the Organic Produce Network (OPN) and Category Partners detailed overall dollar sales growing by less than 1 percent and volume decreasing by 3.4 percent from the same period the year prior.

“Inflation and supply chain challenges have impacted pricing in the short term; however, organic fresh produce will remain an important component of weekly food shopping as consumers look for healthy, safe, and nutritious products for their families,” said OPN Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Matt Seeley, seeing long-term prospects for growth of organic fresh produce, despite the impacts of inflation.

The Q1 2023 Organic Produce Performance Report uses Nielsen IQ syndicated data to track and report the performance of organic fresh produce, specifically for the 20 leading organic categories. The recently released report suggests that rising prices of groceries may be causing consumers to be more selective in their organic shopping.

In total, the produce department as a whole rose 2.6 percent in dollars for the quarter compared to the same period in 2022 and declined by 1.3 percent in volume. Sales of organic fresh produce were nearly $2.4 billion for the first quarter of 2023, while overall volume topped 703 million pounds. Currently, the average price gap between conventional and organic is now the largest it has been in the last four years, according to a release.

For the first quarter of 2023, half of the leading 20 organic categories posted increases in dollars. Organic onions saw the largest percent increase in dollars at 10 percent, followed by bell peppers, lettuce, and herbs.

“In an inflationary period, we see this standard of growth for dollars and decline for volume repeated for most organic and conventional items. When we look at pricing, conventional produce average price per pound grew by 4.3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2022, while organic produce average price per pound rose by 4 percent,” said Tom Barnes, CEO of Category Partners. “With rising prices, we may be seeing more selective organic shopping from consumers as they substitute conventional items for higher-priced organic items."

To read the report in its entirety, click here.

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Organic Produce Network