Sales of organic food and drinks in the UK increased for a fourteenth straight year in 2025 but growth slowed from the prior 12 months.
Total sales reached £3.86bn ($5.15bn), rising 4.2% compared to the 7.4% pace in 2024, according to a report from UK body Soil Association Certification.
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Figures show growth has been inconsistent in recent years, accelerating in 2024 from 2% in 2023 and 1.6% in 2022. However, those rates cooled from 5.2% and 12.6% in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Nevertheless, sales values of organic food and drinks have almost doubled in the past decade from £1.95bn in 2015, according to figures compiled by the Soil Association Certification.
Growth in volumes per unit sold also eased last year for both organic and non-organic food and beverage products, coming in at 1.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
Those rates were down from 4.7% and 1.2% in 2024, the report shows, based on NielsenIQ Scantrack Data to 27 December.
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By GlobalDataUK supermarkets unsurprisingly led the growth in organic sales last year with a 7% increase to £2.6bn. However, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda all lost market share, while Ocado, Lidl and Aldi gained. Morrisons was flat.
Asda lost the most (-1%) followed by Sainsbury’s (-0.7%). Ocado was the biggest beneficiary with plus 1.2%, while discounters Lidl and Aldi both added 0.5% to their share of the market.
“Supermarkets have taken note of consumer demand for healthy, high-quality nutrient-rich food, and have reacted with rebrands and expansions to their organic ranges, along with more price promotions and loyalty discounts,” Alex Cullen, the Soil Association Certification’s commercial director, said.
Citing data from Worldpanel by Numerator, he added “83% of households are buying organic and the frequency of organic purchases has increased in supermarkets, with shoppers on average buying organic once every three weeks“.
By category, the Soil Association Certification said dairy, ambient products, fresh goods, meat, fish and poultry are the most popular organic purchases at the supermarket level.
Beers, wines and spirits also featured highly, with unit volumes growing 5% last year, outpacing the 2.3% for fresh produce and 2.9% for meat, fish and poultry.
Frozen led the way with volume growth of 16.3% followed by 5.3% for dairy. Baby food and drinks suffered, falling 10.8%.
Almost a quarter (23%) of supermarket organic purchases are made online, according to the report, citing NielsenIQ data.
“The continued growth of the organic market reflects the strong consumer demand for healthier, more nature friendly food,” Cullen added, claiming the use of pesticides and so-called forever chemicals “have no doubt also captured consumer attention and driven shoppers to look for the organic logo”.
The rising use of the GLP-1 weight-loss drugs is also “set to shape” shopper behaviour towards organic, the report suggests.
“Health is dominating consumer choices, with a desire for more protein, fibre and nutrient density driving purchases towards more whole foods,” according to the report.
