Sweden gets its first organic supermarket

Picture: Team Ekolivs in Vallentuna

At the beginning of March 2007, Sweden’s first organic supermarket Ekostore (www.ekostore.se, www.godsak.se/ekostore) opened its doors in Göteborg, the country’s second largest town with a population of around 900,000 inhabitants. The young founders of the store, Hanna Svensson and Jonas Kuschel, explained to Göteborg’s local newspaper (Fria Tidning) that the idea for the store emerged after a visit to Berlin.

A large proportion of the goods on sale come from Germany, the principal supplier being Dennree, because creating a full product range with Swedish wholesalers alone would have been really onerous for the two entrepreneurs. Currently their range consists of about 1500 food articles and a number of hygiene products. Nevertheless, the store as a whole is supplied by around 15 wholesalers (Picture: Ekolivs).

With its spacious aisles and clear layout, the 410 m² store is different from the usual small wholefood shops where every nook and cranny is packed with goods. Even the staff’s clothing is organic: they wear T-shirts and jeans made from organic cotton. Shortly after Ekostore was founded in March, the second store (picture), Ekolivs  (www.ekolivs.com), was opened in Vallentuna to the north of the capital Stockholm. According to the manager, Gunilla Hofgren, this store has 175 m² of retail space and a range of approximately 1000 products.

A study of the consumers’ organisation ‘Konsumentverket’ has shown that already 10 % of the total expenditure on food of four out of every ten Swedes goes on organic products, and more than half of the food bought by a tenth of Swedes is organic. Turnover of organics rose last year by about 10 % to roughly 700 million Euros, and the proportion of organics in the total food market amounts to 3 %. Almost a third of the turnover of organics in Sweden is accounted for by dairy products. Despite this, organic milk as a raw material is in quite short supply, and dairies like Arla and Skanemajerier compete for every dairy farmer to avoid having to limit their production.

The most important marketing channel for organics was and still is the conventional retail food trade. In the lead is the Coop chain with about 1200 organic products. Coop announced in a press report that the sales of organics rose by 6 % last year, and currently they constitute 4 % of total turnover. Its competitors ICA and Axfood with the chains Hemköp and Willy sell 450 and 260 organic products respectively. However, fruit and vegetables are not included in these figures on account of big seasonal fluctuations. By 2010, insiders expect the market will have grown to around ten billion krona (1.1 billion €).

Only a small proportion of organic goods sold in Sweden are imported (approximately 20 %), one reason probably being that in addition to the smaller organics manufacturers  the big conventional manufacturers are also producing organic goods. An example of this successful trend is Björnekulla, a conventional manufacturer of berry products and a major supplier of Ikea’s Sweden-Shops. The company already produces 14 organic articles, mainly jams, and is planning to introduce at least three new products this year. Also the best known manufacturer of canned fish, Abba Seafood, has recognised the trend and launched herrings in mustard sauce in organic quality last Christmas. Every year, 2.8 million jars of this traditional food are sold in Sweden. Abba is selling its new organic product to both consumers and canteens.

Organic products will be one of the major topics at the big annual food fair Interfood that will be held from 4-th to 6th September 2007 in Göteborg.