The organic food business began in the 1990s when campaigners started fighting for rules that would govern the production of non-pesticide and herbicide-laden crops. It took a while for the word “organic” to have an official regulatory meaning, but by 2002, farmers had to meet certain standards to be able to label their crops as such.

Within a few years, consumers had cottoned on to the benefits of going organic. It wasn’t long before supermarkets started selling products in the produce aisle, as well as elsewhere in the store, labelled organic. What was so nice about the organic food movement was that for the first time, people had the opportunity to buy food grown traditionally and didn’t have to rely on the word of the producers themselves. People were offering quasi-organic products beforehand, but nobody was inspecting their farms to make sure that standards were being met.

Recently, both pesticides and herbicides have gotten a bad rap, especially the weedkiller, Roundup. Whether these chemicals are safe for human consumption and the planet or not remains to be seen, but customers are certainly demanding that entrepreneurs step up to the challenge and start creating businesses around organic food. People want food that is grown naturally, and the majority of shoppers are educated about some of the benefits of going organic. So should you?

Start An Organic Food Business

Starting an organic food business is, in many ways, easier than setting up a conventional food production company. According to www.rivercountry.coop, people in the industry can get support on a range of factors, such as precision technology, seed services, and risk management – things that new entrepreneurs might not immediately consider. What’s more, because market prices for organic food tend to be between 30 and 50 per cent higher than their conventional counterparts, there isn’t the same necessity to scale to reach decent margins. In the organic food business, you really can start small.

The Demand From Emerging Markets

The demand for organic food in developed countries is already on the rise according to www.theguardian.com/, with growth of around 5 per cent, year or year, or nearly three times real wage growth. But it’s also increasing in developing countries, like India and China, where people are beginning to learn about where their food comes from and what makes it safe and nutritious. Although people are willing to eat lots of sugar and fat in their diet, they’re also very concerned about the perceived threat that pesticides pose to their health. There’s also a belief among many people that conventionally-grown produce lacks the nutrient density of plants grown decades ago and so switching to organic food is seen as a way of improving the quality of the diet.

Entrepreneurs, therefore, have an opportunity to market organic food. As a business owner, you can appeal to the fears that consumers have about conventional food and the benefits that organic food brings. People are willing to pay a premium for food that they believe is safe.