Organic is popular with French consumers. The market continues to grow, and represents 15 per cent of the total food market now. In 2015, this was only 10 per cent. After the US and Germany, France is the third-largest organic market, as well as the largest agricultural country in the EU. The agricultural area is 54 per cent, which amounts to 29 million hectares.
Import
Of the organic products, 70 per cent comes from France and 30 per cent is imported, 15 per cent of which from the EU. After Spain, Belgium and Germany, the Netherlands is the largest supplier of France. Due to the lack of scaling-up, French import is increasing.
In 2017, €7 billion was sold in the organic sector in France, and this is expected to increase to €8 billion in 2018. Of the total French agricultural area, 5.7 per cent is now organic. Compared to 2015, this is an increase of 23 per cent. The French government is striving for 15 per cent in 2022. The counter of the number of organic companies is at 32,000: and increase of 12 per cent compared to 2015.
Consumer behaviour
France has 450,000 agrarian companies, and with 67 million inhabitants, it has a large consumer market. “Consume less, live better,” is a trend among many consumers. There’s much interest in sustainability, fairtrade, organic and vegan. Of the French, 69 per cent regularly consumes organic products.
Among agricultural cooperatives there’s a trend for their own (organic) shops, and there are more and more organic supermarkets. Women in particular consume more organic food, and the majority of these come from cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Reasons for consumers to eat organically is 66 per cent health, 58 per cent environment and 56 per cent quality and flavour.