Organic food revenues in Germany grew in the last decade, from 5.85 billion euros in 2008 to over 10.9 billion euros in 2018. With increasing consumer interest in how food is produced and attention to healthy lifestyles, this trend is set to continue on a long-term basis.

Certified products

To be classified as organic, consumer goods have to go through a certification process. The number of products with organic certification in Germany has grown steadily, reaching over 77.8 thousand in 2018. When broken down by product group, hot drinks were the most common in terms of being certified, followed by herbs and spices, then bread and baked goods. While consumers were still either catching up to the idea of buying organic groceries or making up their minds, a large share did mostly agree that they tended to look for the corresponding product certification when shopping.

Divided consumers

Still, the largest share of the German population stated they rarely bought organic products, the most often stated reason for this being high prices. Those who did were concerned about animal welfare and wanted to support regional companies, to name a few examples. In terms of sales channels, most recently the highest revenue share for organic food products came from health food stores.