U.S. organic sales increased 12.4% last year to a new high of $61.9 billion. It marked the first time total sales of organic food and non-food products surpassed the $60 billion mark, and reflected a growth rate more than twice the 2019 pace of 5%.
Those figures are from the "2021 Organic Industry Survey" released today (May 25) by the Organic Trade Assn. (OTA).
OTA counts both food and non-food items. In almost every organic food aisle, demand jumped by near-record levels, propelling U.S. organic food sales up a record 12.8% to a new high of $56.4 billion. In 2020, almost 6% of the food sold in the U.S. was certified organic.
Leading the category was fresh produce. Fresh organic produce sales rose by nearly 11% in 2020 to $18.2 million. Frozen and canned fruits and vegetables also jumped, with frozen sales alone rising by more than 28%. Including frozen, canned and dried products, total sales of organic fruit and vegetables in 2020 were $20.4 billion. More than 15% of the fruits and vegetables sold in this country now are organic.
As bread making and cookie baking took kitchens across the country by storm, sales of organic flours and baked goods grew by 30%.
Consumers also turned to "meal support" products to help them in the kitchen. Sales of sauces and spices pushed the $2.4 billion condiments category to a growth rate of 31%, and organic spice sales jumped by 51%, more than triple the growth rate of 15% in 2019.
Meat, poultry & fish, the smallest of the organic categories at $1.7 billion, had the second highest growth rate of nearly 25%.
"The only thing that constrained growth in the organic food sector was supply," said Angela Jagiello, Director of Education & Insights for OTA. "Across all the organic categories, growth was limited by supply, causing producers, distributors, retailers and brands to wonder where numbers would have peaked if supply could have been met."
The organic non-food category did not see the same exceptional growth in 2020 as organic food, but its growth held steady with prior years. Sales of organic non-food products reached $5.4 billion, up 8.5% and only slightly below the 9.2% reported in 2019. Textiles and fibers are the biggest non-food category, but personal hygiene, hand sanitizers and cleaning products saw the biggest sales gains.
