Retail sales value of organic products in the European Union 2015-18, by country

In 2018, it was reported that Germany ranked first among the European countries included in terms of organic food product retail sales with approximately 4.4 billion U.S. dollars. During the period covered, Germany’s market of processed organic food was the largest in Europe. The French market was the second largest, closing the gap to the German market from 2015 onwards. Notably the UK market somewhat stagnated in recent years and was overtaken by the Italian market in 2016.

The complete organic product market

The so far discussed numbers are limited to processed and packaged food. When considering all organic agricultural products sold in retail, the German market in 2017 was larger than ten billion euros. Two more markets in Europe surpass the UK’s market in size. Switzerland and Sweden both had markets slightly larger with 2.44 and 2.37 billion euros respectively. Consumption in the European Union came to 67.2 euros per capita in 2017. Growth in the market was significant and amounted to almost seven euros more per capita compared to the previous year.

The struggling UK market

After 2008, the organic food market in the UK shrank and sales of organic products did surpass 2008 sales up until 2017. The German market experienced a minor dip in comparison, seeing overall growth. Compared to other markets in Europe, on the UK market, retail only had a small share of organic products with a dozen other countries having a higher share of organic retail sales in 2017.