The parallels here with organic are striking. When Sainsbury’s took the bold decision to disband their organic aisle and migrate the organic products into their parent categories hard-line organic shoppers were dismayed as it meant they had to shop the whole store instead of just one small bit. But organic sales rocketed as more mainstream shoppers discovered organics for the first time – the act of having organics side-by-side with ‘normal’ products on the main aisles made them more approachable. Sensibly Sainsbury’s waited to make this move until product quality and price premium were both acceptable to mainstream consumers.

We may rapidly be approaching this point with Free From. Certainly soymilk and soya yoghurts are now considered to be regular products. Whilst the dedicated Free From aisles in Asda and Sainsbury’s have worked well, as the sector matures it may be time for Free From to be merchandised in the parent categories. A potential challenge here is that the products would then be bought by the category buyer, so Free From training for buyers would be essential

Last year Mintel estimated the size of the UK Free From market as around £213 million per year at retail and forecast that the UK market for Free From would reach £280m by 2012.  Growth is expected to come from “restricters”  rather than allergic or intolerant consumers. Only 30% of UK shoppers currently buy into free-from, 10% because of a food intolerance and 20% because they see it as a healthy option. The way to reach the these restricters is to have Free From merchandised as widely as possible throughout the store and well away from the current Free From ghetto. Only then will retailers be able to capitalise fully on current consumer interest and product quality improvements.

One of the best scenes in the new film Food Inc (www.foodincmovie.com, go see) comes when Gary Hirshberg, CEO of US organic producers Stoneyfield Farm, is pictured walking the aisles at Natural Products Expo, the American equivalent of our own Natural Products Europe trade show. Gary points to each company stand in turn and lists out who has bought them. “Kelloggs, Palmolive…” , the list goes on. Gary himself sold to massive French dairy company Danone and is unapologetic about having done so, pointing out that big businesses enter the  organic sector by acquiring and growing small businesses and this increases the amount of land which is farmed organically and reduces pesticide use.

Talking at The National Health Conference in June 2008 US retailing guru Danny Wells was emphatic that the natural food industry’s role is to nurture small brands, give them space to grow but not to get too possessive when the same brands start appearing in supermarkets at lower prices. Danny’s view was that the forward looking natural food retailers should then concentrate on promoting successor brands not yet widely available through other channels.

The recent takeover of Cadbury’s by Kraft and the implications for Green & Black’s has intensified this discussion. I was taken aback by the vehemence of comments left by consumers on blogs and on Twitter. “Here in the office we’ve only just worked out that the Cadburys-Kraft buyout now also means that Kraft owns Green and Blacks. UGH.” “So you sold out to a multinational that has now been bought by another multinational. Now I know this, I shall not be buying Green & Black’s any more. Why should I give my money to a corporation whose products are mostly unethical? There are plenty of other Fair Trade brands out there.” Not everyone who buys a product worries about the ethics of the company that has produced it. Those consumers who are sufficiently engaged (or enraged) to air their views online may only be a tiny minority – we don’t know.

And the products have not changed – they are still natural, organic, Fairtrade. Every day shoppers come into natural food shops wanting to buy these products. They probably buy other things whilst they are in the shop. If they could not buy them they might go elsewhere. Who are we to deny customers the products they have been buying for years just because we take exception to the ultimate owners of the brand?

Clearly this conundrum is too much for my limited brain so I have put together a panel of four industry experts – two manufacturers, two retailers – to debate the issue at the Natural Products Europe show. The panel is Craig Sams (Green & Black’s), Colin Mace (Booja Booja), Peter Langsam (Planet Organic) and John Grayson (Earth Natural). There will be plenty of time for contributions from the audience so if you have strong views on this issue then please come along to the Pillar Hall in Olympia on Monday 12^th April at 1315 and join in the fun.

To give you a flavour of what we’ll be talking about I asked the panel for their initial thoughts. Peter Langsam, Buyer at Planet Organic is clear. “Let the customers decide. The natural foods and organic market has become challenging enough for independents. We sell food and health and body care lines that meet our strict product standards, whether they are from a tiny local artisan producer or a large multinational corporation.” Retailer John Grayson of Earth Natural veers more towards supporting smaller companies. “Being a small independent retailer is a constant balancing act. In an ideal world we would like to stock products exclusively from fully ethical small companies, but we cannot afford to turn away the significant business that bigger brands bring to us, nor to alienate customers who expect to find them in our shop!”. Craig Sams has a very different viewpoint. “A farmer grows organic wheat which benefits the environment, the climate and biodiversity: so  what if that wheat ends up in a Ritz cracker or in a loaf of artisan sourdough?  Organic farming gives us a sustainable future and helps us avoid unhealthful processing.  If multinationals support a better way of doing things why should we punish them for it?”.

Colin Mace tries to put the issue in perspective: “It is a wonderful achievement to run a successful shop offering organic, wholesome food that helps consumers meet their dietary needs and I admire any wholefood shop owner who aspires to do any more than this. One wholefood shop (or one chocolate company) cannot transform the world to the extent the idealists amongst us would wish, thus each of us choose from amongst our basket of priorities in guiding our decisions. The challenge lies in ensuring our choices are conscious, intentional and coherent.” Debating how we ensure our choices are ‘conscious, intentional and coherent’ will be quite a challenge, but I look forward to having a go – see you on April 12th !

From www.foodnavigator.com

The European Commission has today announced the winner of its contest to design a new logo to appear on all organic food and beverage products in the European Union: a leaf-shaped design from Germany that attracted 63 per cent of the votes.

The Commission turned to design students to come up with the new logo after the initial insignia was withdrawn for resembling too closely the logo of a supermarket chain. The three shortlisted entries were scrutinised closely to ensure there were no infringements, and some 130,000 people voted online for their favourite.

The winning design comprised twelve stars in the shape of a leaf (see below – winning design is on the left). This logo is said to be “a very straightforward sign containing two clear messages: Nature and Europe”. It was drawn up by German student Dusan Milenkovic, who receives €6000 in prize money. The identities and nationalities of the three final contenders have not previously been published, to prevent skewing the voting.

Agriculture and rural development commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said:“This exercise has raised the profile of organic food and we now have a logo which everyone will be able to identify with. It’s a nice elegant design and I look forward to buying products carrying this logo from July this year.”

The new logo has to be inserted into the organic farming regulation’s annex in the coming weeks. It will then be compulsory on new organic products as of 1 July 2010, but industry has until 1 January 2012 before labels on all existing products need to be changed. National, region, or private labels will be allowed to appear on packaging alongside the common EU logo.

“As tends to be the case with EU regulation, the timescales are getting tight for implementation. Lead times on new products can be significant and if the logo is adopted only by April or May, it doesn’t give long before the July deadline for its introduction for new products to be suitably labelled,” Richard Jacobs, chief executive of UK control body, Organic Farmers & Growers, told FoodNavigator.com in December.

He added that the 18 month grace period for existing label stocks is “fortunate”.

The single logo  challenge is more problematic. Buy organic foods in the UK and you are likely to find any one of half a dozen organic certification logos on pack. Alternatively you might find a non-UK organic logo on the pack , or you might even find no organic logo at all (perfectly legal).

Now the EU have got involved. As of next year every organic line produced in the EU will have to carry a mandatory new organic logo on its label. And because Europe is a collection of democracies we  get a chance to vote for the logo we want, from a selection of three. The only problem is that all three logos are terrible. See for yourself at http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/logo/index_en.htm . I remonstrated with Craig Sams, one of the judges who had selected these three designs from  and he assured me that the other 3,419 had been worse, which frankly is hard to believe. I sought the advice of the head of one of the UK’s most successful design companies and this is his verdict: “All poo. Number Three is fractionally less poo than the other two but all are the equivalent of a big pile of poo on a plate of dung.”

All over the EU companies will be incurring needless expense to add one of these ghastly logos to their labels. Will doing this help consumers recognise and understand organic products more easily? Not one bit.

What can we do? Protest. The Freiburg-based lawyer Hans-Peter Schmidt  recommends that people who oppose the logos state their opinion by writing to the organisers(info@organic-logo-competition.eu) and to the EU ( Mariann.Fischer-Boel@ec.europa.eu). According to Hans-Peter Schmidt, “The three drafts do not fit the purpose. They do not clearly say ‘This is an organic product’. When displayed in a minimal version on the product packaging, one can hardly recognise them.” He recommends that, if you do not agree with any of the drafts, you vote with a NO by sending an email saying “The three organic draft logos put up for a public vote do not communicate that the product is organic. None of the three is distinctive when printed in small scale on packing. I vote NO and reject all three.”.

Please visit the logo website and then send your emails, while the horror of what you have seen is still fresh in your mind. Do it for organic shoppers as yet unborn. You know it makes sense (unlike the organic logos).

“The European Commission yesterday unveiled the three finalists in its contest for design students to come up with the new logo that will be mandatory on all organic food and beverage products, under the 2007 EU regulation on organic foods (834/2007).

A spokesperson for the Commission told FoodNavigator.com that after public vote, which is open until 31 January, the winning logo will be inserted into a draft regulation modifying Annex XI of regulation 889/2008, which laid down the rules for implementing 834/2007. The amendment and the logo will have to be adopted by the Standing Committee on Organic Farming, a meeting of which is scheduled for early February.

However the precise date when the logo will be published and become law is not yet clear. It could be between late March and May 2010. The new logo will then be compulsory on new organic products as of 1 July 2010, but industry has until 1 January 2012 before logos on all existing products need to be changed.

“As tends to be the case with EU regulation, the timescales are getting tight for implementation. Lead times on new products can be significant and if the logo is adopted only by April or May, it doesn’t give long before the July deadline for its introduction for new products to be suitably labelled,” Richard Jacobs, chief executive of UK control body, Organic Farmers & Growers, told FoodNavigator.com. He added that the 18 month grace period for existing label stocks is “fortunate”.

As for whether the common EU organic logo will aid understanding of organic food, Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, was doubtful. 
“The Soil Association organic logo is already understood, respected and well-recognised by consumers in the UK. It will continue to be used on organic products which are certified to our independent standards – standards that in many areas exceed those set by the European Union,” he said.

“We don’t think that in the UK the European logo will add to consumer understanding here in the UK, but recognise that the new logo will be introduced across the EU from July 2010.”

Moreover, Jacobs expressed concern about the practicalities of the logo that is adopted.

“A significant concern is the third design, that resembles hieroglyphics. Our processing team can’t envisage how this could be used on packaging, where it would have to be quite small and the symbols would be indistinguishable and, effectively, meaningless. That does seem to demonstrate something of a lack of understanding by the judges as to how these will be used,” he said.

“There were some very promising entries, but none of the ones we really liked are in the running.”

The three finalists, selected from 3422 entries, can be viewed and voted on at http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/logo/index.htm until 31 January 2010.”

A discussion I had with Jean-Francois has given me much to think about. Of the grain from which Fair is distilled, some is Fair Trade quinoa. The rest is wheat, for which no Fair Trade standards exist. Francois admits that his reasons for doing this are to keep the price down. Already Fair is a premium product retailing at 32.99 Euros. Apparently  a pure Quinoa product would cost double this. Making a product that is so expensive that it doesn’t sell helps no-one, least of all the disadvantaged Bolivian farmers who grow the quinoa used in Fair.

But what is the consumer perspective on this? Under Fairtrade labelling standards Fair qualifies to carry the mark by  being made from at least 50% Fairtrade ingredients. The front of the bottle clearly says “Distilled From Wheat and Fair Trade Quinoa” . Whilst there is no intention to deceive, with ethical schemes such as Fair Trade we have to be very careful that consumers do not expect more than is delivered. A good example here is a ‘Mischief’, a BBC television programme I helped to make earlier this year. At one point presenter Alex Riley is interviewing Ed Millard of the Rainforest Alliance about their agreeing to certify Galaxy chocolate. Alex makes the point that while the cocoa in Galaxy may be sustainable under RA rules the palm oil that Galaxy contains is not, and what is the point of a partly-sustainable product? Ed re-iterates that the RA can only certify the cocoa and not the palm oil, but the viewer is left with the impression of an inconsistency that could affect buying intention.

This type of inconsistency is cited by many respondents on the Fair Trade Foundation website following the announcement that Nestle are having Kit Kat certified as Fairtrade. Many posters regarded this as totally unacceptable given Nestles reputation for past dubious business practices in marketing baby milk in the South. Should that mean that Nestle cannot launch a Fairtrade product? Some posters make the point that Fairtrade regulations certify the product and not the company but it is clear to some consumers that this does not go far enough and a more holistic approach to ethics is required.

Still, Fair Trade Vodka and Fair Trade Kit Kat in the same week  – I wonder if one of Fair’s demon “mixologists” could combine the two ?

KitKatTini anyone?

PS The Fair promotional leaflet refers to Fair as being “the first Fair Trade Spirits Brand In the World”. It isn’t, because Utkins Fair Trade Rum launched first (and I helped develop it)

LINKS

“Fair” Fair Trade Vodka jfdaniel@fairtradespirits.com

BBC “Mischief” www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nxckk

Kit Kat Announcement www.fairtrade.org.uk/press_office/kitkatannouncement.aspx?dm_i=635396674

Utkins Fair Trade Rum www.vintageroots.co.uk/product.asp?id=1843

This is the third such survey and the first in which two supermarkets (Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencers) have both received an overall  A rating (= excellent). Waitrose received a B, whilst The Co-op, Morrisons and Tesco were all rated C. The gap between the best and worst supermarkets appears to be growing.

Highlights of the research:

• 54% of customers interviewed by Consumer Focus said that they are buying more environmentally responsible products compared to two years ago against 3% who said they are buying less
• 92% of the seasonal produce surveyed in Waitrose was sourced from the UK: Sainsbury’s and Morrisons were reasonably close behind, sourcing 83% and 81% respectively. Asda performed particularly badly with only 59% of the produce surveyed sourced from the UK – a 10% drop since 2007.
• Aldi and Lidl both scored D’s overall. However Aldi stocked the highest proportion of products certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and that were recycled (96%). Despite such supermarkets having an overwhelming focus on price the report notes that  “there are still areas where sustainability and value can overlap”

Simon Wright 10.11.09

This show was held to promote and coincide with National Chocolate Week.

The format was a large single room with simple tasting tables plus an additional room for lectures.

Companies exhibited included:

• Hotel Chocolat – Angus Thirlwewll was one of the speakers (www.hotelchocolat.co.uk)
• Galler (www.galler.com) – interesting range based on the four elements (wind, air,earth, water)
• Des Angelis – Italian unconched chocolate (www.deangelis.uk.com)
• Chocolate By Trish – high quality chocolate for home cooking (www.chocolatebytrish.com)
• Choc Chick  - raw chocolate (www.chocchick.com)
• Pacari – high quality organic chocolate from Ecuador (www.pacarichocolate.com)
• Ooh La La – homemade seasonal chocolates (www.oohlalachocolaterie.com)
• Lauden – artisan chocolates (www.laudenchocolate.com)
• Chococo – fresh chocolates from Dorset (www.chococo.co.uk)
• Artisan Du Chocolat – now two London shops (www.artisanduchocolat.com)
• Melt – ditto (www.meltchocolate.com)
• Paul  Wayne Gregory (www.paulwaynegregory.com) – new Indulgence range
• Complete Cooking – caterers
• SeventyPercent.com (www.seventypercent.com) – website for high quality chocolate
• Academy Of Chocolate (www.academyofchocolate.org.uk) – co-ordinating body for high quality chocolatiers

I was there first thing on Sunday and attendance was steady – a friend went later in the day and said it was busy. Most of the standholders I talked to were happy with the attendance. You will see by the list above that most are relatively small producers, buying couverture from the likes of Cacao Barry and distributing their products locally and over the internet.

Throughout the day there were a number of lectures by high profile chocolatiers. The one I went to was by Paul Wayne Gregory which was OK – he is a nice chap and very keen (understandably) to promote his own products but he was not a compelling speaker. It would be good to have some more basic talks on  how chocolate is made, what tempering is, etc. One criticism I heard from standholders was that when the lectures started the rest of the show emptied, which left them with not much to do.

According to organisers Kate Johns and Emma Jane Clark they had over 100 journalists attending  as well as buyers from Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason and Harrods, making the show a useful trade showcase for products and product launches. The plan is to repeat Chocolate Unwrapped next year so look out for it – well worth a visit!.

• What constitutes real value? Correct price, quality and fairness of sourcing. Fairness will become a key feature of the business landscape.
• Over the next twenty years importing some staples looks difficult… power will shift towards farmers and growers. All retailers will have to work hard to remain their partners of choice – hence Fairtrade relationships will be even more important over the next 15 years
• Fairtrade and trading fairly is becoming a ‘hygiene’ factor

Rob Cameron, CEO, FLOev

• FLO’s aims are to work “stonger, broader,deeper”
• Plethora of ethical labels emerging is good but not the corporate belief  that ”any label will do”
• New FLO goal is 5/10/15 ie 5 times more producers and 10 times more sales by the year 2015 – can be done if other countries are successful as the UK is now!
• FLO will launch a simplified producer certification system next year and will look at working with other systems eg Eurogap

Darcy Wilson-Rymer, MD, Starbucks

• Fairtrade gives us a compelling and simple way of stating all the good things we do to our customers
• Moving to Fairtrade Espresso in the UK alone will add $3.7m to the annual Fairtrade social premium
• We’re a big company, we can make a big difference
• We need to recognise the different needs of business and the Fairtrade movement – to find the common good and work together. We should not try to change each others identity.

Cheryl Sloan, Marketing Director, Fairtrade Foundation

• 17% sales uplift of Sainsbury’s own-label tea since it went Fairtrade
• 34% of shoppers buy a Fairtrade product once a month but this is not growing
• FTF 2010 theme is  ‘The Big Swap” – aim is 1 million and 1 swaps of conventional products for Fairtrade
• The Big Swap will be characterised by tone of voice that is warmer, more accessible and more lively
• www.thebigswap.org.uk goes live tomorrow!

Todd Stitzer, CEO, Cadbury

• Cadbury’s have gone Fairtrade in part because of concerns over supply chain sustainability
• Business is ‘performance driven, values led” and ‘principled capitalism”
• The Cadbury’s Dairy Milk deal means that Ghana will move from exporting 5000 MT of Fairtrade cocoa now to 20,000 MT in 2010

Joannne Denney-Finch, Chief Executive, IGD

Four things that the Fairtrade movement needs to watch for:

• Price premium too high – consumers want “value for values”
• Confusion – 21% of consumers don’t know what Fairtrade means
• Scepticism – 18% support Fairtrade in principle but are not convinced it works in practice
• Scale-up – prepare for unprecedented success!