Germany still leads the pack

Based on a report produced by Dr. Klaus-Juergen Holstein, Ein Herz fuer BIO magazine

Germany still represents the biggest organic market in Europe, with potential for growth, followed by France and Great Britain. Organic sales account for 6.5% of the total food sales in Germany, 3.4% in France and 2.2% in Great Britain.

Compared to the other two countries, the German food market is generally low-priced, including organic food. The German organic sales concentrate mainly on fruit and vegetables, supplements and wellness food from rice cakes to vegetarian spread, and on dairy products.

Regarding channels of distribution, at the end of the 1990s small specialist shops dominated with over 40% of organic sales. Today, the 2000 specialist shops account for only 23% of total sales. Supermarket chains with around 40,000 outlets account for 35 %, and 19% of sales go through discount-markets, which with 10,000 retail shops account to 40% of total food sales.

Specialist shops do not have a well developed structure yet.There are only two large chains , Alnatura and Denn