great lakes dairy sheep symposium - the Department of Animal ...

ORGANIC SHEEP DAIRY: MARKETS AND PRODUCTION
Jody Padgham
Education Director, Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES),
Spring Valley, Wisconsin, USA
jody@mosesorganic.org
The Organic Market
The International and U.S. organic markets are growing quickly, and have been for the past
15 years. Statistics show that the U.S. organic dairy market has been growing at a rate of over
25% for several years. 1 The Organic Trade Association (www.ota.com) states that 66% of U.S.
consumers report that they use organic products at least occasionally. A 2002 literature review
from Canada states that “The intention to buy more organic food ranges from 16% in the U.S. to
53% in India; worldwide it is approximately 30%.” 2 Thousands of new consumers are buying
organic products each week, as education about “the organic difference” and why one may
choose organic products reaches a broader consumer base.
The availability of organic products has also expanded, even reaching into main-stream
companies such as General Mills foods, Hunts and Heins, Dean Foods and recently Kemps Dairy
products. These ultra-large companies would not be joining the organic market if they didn’t
consider the market demand to be strong and growing.
Buyers of specialty cheeses are also supportive of organic products. A 2000-2001 northern
California study of specialty cheese consumers found that buying organic is very important to
21.2%, important to 51.5%, makes no difference to only 15.2% and is not important to only
12.1% 3
In an article titled “Emerging Top Food Trends in the U.S. and Abroad”, the Institute of Food
Technologists name “inherently healthy, fancy and farm-friendly” among their top five qualities
that consumers will be seeking in the near future. 4 What a perfect description of organically
produced sheep dairy products!
Who Buys Organic?
An assessment of the organic market in The Gourmet Retailer notes that the organic
consumer is not that different than the non-organic consumer. “Contrary to conventional
wisdom, organic consumers are not significantly more affluent than the U.S. public as a whole,
but instead have an average or slightly above-average income vs. that of all U.S. consumers.
Neither are organic consumers a fringe or an "alternative" group culturally; they are basically
1 “Recent Growth Patterns in the U.S. Organic Foods Market” USDA-Economic Research Service, Agricultural
Information Bulletin Number 777, September 2002.
2 A Profile of the Organic Industry and Its Issues, Rosalie Cunningham and Betty Vladicka, Government of
Alberta, Canada, 2002.
3 Test Marketing Pasture-produced Artisan Cheeses. Tim Pedrozo, Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese Company. SARE
funded grant research. 2002.
4 Emerging Top Food Trends in the U.S. and Abroad, Institute of Food Technologists, April 2005
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