Organic soft toys bouyant but other organic sales tough

Two reports out this week make worrying reading for businesses supplying and retailing organic goods

Firstly profits at organic food wholesaler Cole and Able crashed to a 27.5m loss

Secondly the Soil Association announced that sales of organic foods in the last year had declined from £2.1bn to 1.84bn

Worst hit were sales of bread, veg and chilled ready made meals

However baby food sales increased by almost 21% and now exceeds £100m per annum

It makes sense that when times are tough organic food will be one of the first things to be cut but interesting that people still believe in organic enough to keep their baby food organic

As a toy wholesaler we have tried to source organic toys but have not yet found a supplier where the designs and prices are right. In some ways we are happy for sales to decrease as it may make organic producers less complacent. It has felt sometimes as if the fact that a product is organic should be enough but the consumer always has a choice.

The ethical consumer can chose Fair Trade, bamboo, hand made or organic so any ranges we offer to retailers should be able to stand up in their own right not just because they have the label organic

We are still looking for an organic toy manufacturer so please email us on sales@bestyears.co.uk if you have a range you would like us to see

Organic milk bucked the trend, growing by one per cent, while baby food sales also increased by 20.8 per cent, exceeding £100 million