The Organic Trade Board was formally relaunched as UK Organic this week with a pitch to brands and stakeholders to be the marketing agency for the whole sector – and help turn around a “real terms market decline”. 

The Organic Trade Board was formed in 2009 by a small group of prominent brand owners to promote the wellbeing of the organic industry. This week it formally became UK Organic, and in the process a Community Interest Company (CIC). 

Renewed purpose and focus
Announcing the changes at a meeting in London, UK Organic chairman Adrian Carne said that the newly constituted organisation, now a non-profit, would be “truly independent, inclusive and non-competitive” and reinvigorated with renewed purpose and focus. 

The announcement follows a six month process involving a wide consultation with members and industry stakeholders, and freshly commissioned consumer research. Carne said change was needed at the organisation because funding shortfalls in the last few years had been hampering its operational effectiveness. He said: “For the last three years, post Brexit, we have been propped up by 15-20 members out of a total membership of 120 companies. That’s not sustainable. We simply cannot expect 15 companies to do the marketing for the entire organic sector.”

The OTB successfully secured three funding rounds from the EU during the UK’s membership. But that funding stream stopped with Brexit and UK Organic is now working on creative ways to raise money from the sector.

“Organic is the gold standard for sustainable agriculture. It is certified, it’s quantifiable, it’s regulated and it’s been around since 1946. But organic in Britain faces a series of major challenges which we we need to face into and be realistic about”

Carne said the biggest motivation for the overhaul at the OTB was that “it cares about the future of the UK organic sector”. He said: “We really should care, because we all know the scale of the environmental challenges we face. And organic is the gold standard for sustainable agriculture. It is certified, it’s quantifiable, it’s regulated and it’s been around since 1946.” But he said that organic in Britain “faces a series of major challenges which we we need to face into and be realistic about”. 

These included:

Lack of central government support for the development of organic in the UK. This is in contrast to the EU, where £185 million has been allocated to organic, and organic is at the heart of the transition to a more sustainable agriculture.

Certification. There are six organic certifiers in the UK, with differing priorities and objectives 

Multiple organisations promoting and developing organic. There are around 30 organisations in the UK working to support and develop organic. This risks duplication of effort and lack of focus.

Increasingly crowded sustainable farming space. A space that that until just a few years ago organic “pretty much owned” is now crowded with multiple ethical and eco farming labels. The benefits of organic and competitor labels are increasingly blurred, and sometimes greenwashed.

Multi-messaging. A lack of clear understanding of what organic stands for persists. There is no single message on the benefits or value of organic.

Absence of a single recognisable organic logo. When consumers (classified as ‘organic actives’) were asked if they could name an organic certifier or logo, 75% didn’t attempt to give an answer. 

The UK Organic chairman said the sector “needs to be honest and recognise in real terms that organic is not growing”. He added: “It’s fine to talk about value growth if that’s the metric that your organisation talks about, but the reality is that retailers are taking organic off their shelves and consumers are not buying organic. As a consequence, in real terms, organic in the UK is in decline – and has been for a few years”. 

“in real terms, organic in the UK is in decline – and has been for a few years”

Carne said he recognised the “bigger issue with the impacts of the cost of living crisis”, which has seen consumers switching to own-label and lower value items, adding that it was difficult to confident about when a bounce back might come. But, he said, UK Organic has been developing a plan to “show that we are keen to make a difference”.   

Carne said that UK Organic is currently holding discussions about how to raise funds over the next three of four years. It has also met with all of the big retailers, and key producers, to “get their honest feedback”. Carne pledged that money raised would be used creatively and efficiently to carry out marketing activations, PR initiatives and to prime retailers. 

In September, UK Organic will launch its ‘Find Better. Look for Organic’ campaign on social media, rolling out new messaging and the organisation’s new logo. 

Future campaigns, said Carne, would need to be funded “using different approaches”. He added: “We want brand owners to collaborate, and we want to create better links across the sector. We need to get the 5000 organic processors in the UK on board. If we get this all right, we can be the marketing agency for the whole organic sector. Get behind us and we will do the best we can for you.” 

• For more information on how to become an Organic UK Affiliate Supporter or register for free to become a Fellow Supporter click the link here. 

Natural Newsdesk reporting on the other sessions from the day, including a summary of new consumer research carried out by the Organic Research Centre and a discussion about issues around proposed environmental labelling, will follow shortly.