The British supermarket group Iceland has bought up nearly 40 per cent of the world's organic vegetable crops to supply its customers. It said the move, which is likely to cause much upheaval in supermarket retailing, was an attempt to promote "responsible farming".
From October, all frozen vegetables bought at its stores will be organic and, significantly, at no extra cost to its customers. Iceland, which has 15 per cent of the frozen food market in the UK, has 760 stores in Britain, 30 in Northern Ireland and five in the Republic.
The company claimed it had bought up such a large portion of the world's organic vegetable crop to meet a growing demand among supermarket shoppers - 80 per cent of the organic produce is due to be imported.
But the firm has warned shareholders the organic move would require an extra annual investment of around £8 million by December 2001. Iceland's managing director, Mr Russell Ford, said yesterday the investment was prompted by a survey suggesting three out of four customers would prefer to buy organic goods if they were cheaper than current prices.
"At the moment Britain has minimal organic production due to lack of government investment in the organic industry in its formative years," said Mr Malcolm Walker, Iceland's chairman and chief executive. "We hope our investment will help change this."
The decision to switch some food ranges to organic made moral and commercial sense, he said. "Ethically and morally we are happy to be fighting for better food. Commercially it makes sense as well. The market is expected to grow at 40 per cent over the next five years. We are giving customers a choice of buying natural organic food at affordable prices."
At present, only 3 per cent of UK agricultural land is certified organic (in Ireland, the figure is less) and all supermarkets are forced to rely on imports to meet demand. Ireland is considered to have a significant potential market advantage in the production of organic milk and beef.
Mr Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, the main organic food approval body in Britain, welcomed the move by the retailer, which was also the first to ban genetically modified ingredients from its own brands. "Iceland have made a bold move to make organic produce much more available to thousands of consumers who haven't had it before," he said.
Ms Sandra Bell, real food campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said Iceland had again taken the initiative. "The public want real food, produced without GMOs and pesticides, at affordable prices. This is what Iceland is now going to do. It's now up to the other supermarkets to do the same."
A spokeswoman for Sainsburys said it would look at what Iceland was doing. "We are the largest retailer of organic food in the country, selling £3.2 million of it every week. We have 30 per cent of the UK market in organic food, whereas Iceland has got just 1 per cent."
