Whole Foods Market
The USA food market is currently dynamic and keeps changing on a daily basis. The current occupancy of the shelves that organic foods have taken is quite substantial and this extends to the dairy products category and any other mainstream food retails. It is estimated that the market retail sales of organic foods shot to $21.1 billion in 2008 up from $3.6 billion in 1997 and this has been associated with the marketing boom (United States Department of Agriculture, 2009). The organic industry in the U.S. is evidenced by the increasing private-label product lines and the daily introduction of new product lines.
The organic farms have been struggling to keep pace with the exponential demand of the organic products. Despite the more than doubling of the acreage of the land under organic farming, the supply still cannot match the demand. One of the reasons is because the farmers have not converted their farmlands into organic farmlands fast enough to keep pace with the demand that is experienced. The other factor that could be stalling the matching of the demand and supply is the certifier approval of the farms. This takes three years of dedicated organic farming and the farmer must be able to prove that there were no prohibited substances that were used within or next to the farm. The social pressure against the organic farmers also at times slows the farm conversion to organic farms. This is pressure that comes from the lot that has negative views about the organic farming.
The Whole Foods Market that has been in the business of food for a long time had to stay in touch with the reality of the demand and due to the shifting demand patterns they introduced the organic foods, produce and products into their stores. It is estimated that more than half the American population have tried organic foods. In a research compiled by Organic Consumer Association (2004), it indicates that 58% of the respondents indicated that they believe the organic foods are healthy for the environment hence they buy it, and another 54% saying that they buy the food because it is healthy for them. 57% indicated that they buy the organic foods as a means of supporting the small scale...
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