Annie’s President, John Foraker, recently made predictions that this trend of organic growth is likely to continue. This may not come as a surprise, because Annie’s, as a company, has made a strong commitment to providing organic products, and believes fully in organic in lieu of non-GMO or conventional foods.
Foraker predicts that the organic market may someday make up 20% of the total food market.
According to Foraker, “I think that the natural products industry will move to organic. That’s where it’s going and it’s what consumers want. Today, 4-5% of the market is organic, and I think it will ultimately get to 20%.”
Much of this, he states, has to do with the movement away from the term ‘natural’ towards other documented claims like certified USDA organic.
In an interview with FoodNavigator-USA at Natural Products Expo West in March 2016, Foraker stated,
“I think the industry will benefit from some regulation of the term ‘natural’, but if the FDA allows manufacturers to label as ‘natural’ stuff that most consumers don’t consider to natural, it could backfire. At Annie’s, we haven’t even used the term ‘natural’ on labels since the early 2000s because it doesn’t mean anything.”
If he is correct, this leaves quite a bit of open space available in the organic food industry for brands to continue to make new and delicious products for the organic-hungry consumers of tomorrow.