The Organic Annual Report, released on February 25, pointed to the large differences in sales between different organic product categories. While some organic categories such as baby food, wine and carrots have a market share of 25 percent in the trade, categories such as charcuterie, cheese and bread do not even reach a market share of two percent. One who thinks a lot about this, and who tangibly does something about it for the organic bread, is Thomas Färnefalk at Green Bakery.
- The retail trade's perception in recent years is that consumers have stronger preferences for locally produced or Swedish-made products than for organic. Of course, the lack of supply from the bakeries is a contributing factor, which is partly due to low demand from the retail trade but also to pressured prices, says Thomas
In order to get Swedes to buy more organic bread, Thomas believes that the retail trade must invest more in communicating the benefits of organic production and that organic bread is better exposed. Organic does not have to go against local or Swedish, but at the same time be clear with what additional added value it provides, says Thomas
The challenges notwithstanding have Green Bakery two brand new product launches underway. From week 11, there will be two organic breads within the brand "ICA Selection" there as well Green Bakery gets its brand on the packaging, a type of co-branding in other words. One is a dark blueberry bread and the other a light breakfast bread. Both are, of course, handcrafted with mainly Swedish ingredients. ICA Selection contains products with that little extra and that have passed tough quality criteria. Taste, quality and identity of origin are all important aspects for a product to qualify in the ICA Selection range.
Green Bakery was started in 2006 and was Sweden's first organic bakery with nationwide distribution, and is run by Thomas Färnefalk. The business concept is to bake bread of the highest quality; on simplicity, transparency and an interest in sustainable development. Green Bakery is also available at Eko-Portalen.