Switzerland: market grew to 2.25 billion euro

The Federal Office for Agriculture published the statistics 2017 for organic food. One in ten fresh food items sold in Switzerland last year was organic.

According to the Federal Office for Agriculture, in sales, the Swiss organic food market grew by 7.6% per year over the past decade. The total value of organic food sold in Switzerland rose from CHF1.3 billion (1.13 bn €) in 2007 to CHF2.7 billion (2,25 bn €) in 2017. Annual per-capita expenditure rose from CHF171 (148€) to CHF320 (277 €).

Market share at 9%

The market share of organic products almost doubled in the last ten years and rose from 4.6% in 2007 to 9% in 2017. The share of fresh organic food sold in Switzerland rose from just under 6% to 11.5% over the same period, the agriculture office reported recently. 26.6% of all eggs sold in Switzerland was organic in 2017. Similar percentages were recorded for organic vegetables (23.1%) and organic fresh bread (22.1%) 

According to the report the supermarket giants Migros (33% of the market) and Coop (44%) are the biggest organic distributors. Specialist shops have lost market share (5% in total) over this period. A total of 279 new producers managed to obtain an organic certification label in 2017, bringing the number of organic farms in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to 6,906. Of these 6,423 fall under the Bio Suisse certification scheme.