At the beginning of the month I wrote about reports that were concerned that the economic downturn had affected organic sales as people looked to purchase products that were cheaper as their wallets are getting squeezed. The number of people buying "value" rather than standard products has also seen a major shift towards lower costs and prices. The Telegraph reports that shoppers could abandon organic and fair trade products over the coming months. Aldi, Netto and Lidl have seen an average sales growth of 13% over the past three months.
Food inflation is currently running at 6.6% and the report highlights that organic chicken at Asda costs £14.49 a kilo, compared with £9.98 for a standard chicken, or £6.89 for Asda's value range chickens. Many farmers have invested their hopes, time and money in developing products with an extrinsic value based on organic, free range or fairtrade standards. I wrote about this in my post on the tipping point for pigs back in March. Will the consumer still support extrinsic value products and the standards that they promote as we face a financial squeeze?
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