Abstract
The aim of this desk study is to characterise the organic market in the UK. It follows on from a recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Organic Standards (ACOS) R&D Committee for an in-depth consideration of organic markets and the potential for increasing UK production to meet them. The project will begin with a literature search, directed by sector experts, to find existing information that is relevant to organic markets in the UK. This information will be reviewed and used to focus subsequent knowledge acquisition activities. Following this, the market for each sector will be characterised in terms of its operation, and opportunities and constraints will be identified. The following sectors will be considered: red meat (beef and lamb), poultry (meat and eggs), pork, dairy (liquid and processed milk), horticulture, arable, food processing and manufacturing, distribution and retailing. The supply chain in each sector, and across sectors, will be examined to identify linkages and to highlight areas where weak linkages are blocking market entry, operation and development. This will identiy topics for targeted case studies to determine the reasons for success or failure in the market. The aim will be to identify why certain business opportunities have been successful and why others have failed. Finally, the economic barriers to market entry, operation and development in each sector will be identified by considering factors such as production capability, processing and manufacturing capacity, distribution, consumption, the retail market and access to organic food. In addition, the response of different socio-economic and ethnic groups to organic food will be considered, and regional variation and the penetration of the organic market into urban versus rural areas will be investigated. A project web page will be used to post documents containing the results of work packages and case studies and to provide links to information collected during the literature search.
United Kingdom