Best Organic Wines for Fall and Winter
Organic Wine Sales Reach $373 Million in 2020
Organic wine sales in 2020 rose 17.6% over 2019 sales, hitting $373 Million according to the 2021 Organic Trade Association Industry Report. This is a two-fold increase over the prior year, and is indicative of the consumer demand for all things organic, including wine.
Key findings from the report:
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- In 2020, organic wine sales experienced record growth at 17.6% and reached $373 million in sales.
- 2020 Organic Wine Sales grew by 17.6%. That’s more than twice last year’s growth which was 8.7%.
- Overall organic industry of both food and non-food categories reported very strong growth in 2020, increasing at a rate of 12.4% to hit $61.9 billion in sales. This was in contrast to a growth rate of 5.0% for organic products in 2019.
- Organic food sales, the primary driver of this growth, expanded at a rate of 12.8%, compared to a rate of 4.6% in 2019, to reach $56.5 billion in sales. In 2020, organic accounted for 5.8% of all food sales.
OTA Report Shows Why Organic Wine Sales Soared in 2020
“In 2020, organic wine sales experienced record growth at 17.6% and reached $373 million in sales. The growth is notable, considering many wineries in the overall industry were severely affected by restaurant closures. Helping to drive growth for many were direct to consumer sales. Although this can be complicated to set up and there is a lot of compliance reporting to do state by state, wineries have said the benefit is that they get to sell product at a retail price instead of a wholesale price. Growth is limited in this sector by the organic grape supply. There are gaps. Especially in places such as California, the issue of climate change, and in particular the recent fires have affected the production of more organic vineyards and therefore the organic wine industry’s ability to grow.
Many new consumers came to organic as a result of trying something new. Yet, the primary reason organic purchases skyrocketed was because people have come to associate organic with health. And in the time of a pandemic, they looked to organic food as medicine, to build their immunity and for clean ingredients to feed their families. Even when indulgences of ice cream, chocolate or wine were sought (and they were), organic was considered the better option.”
As much as people made health a priority in 2020, they also still sought indulgences and niceties, such as chocolate and wine. Organic wines are no longer considered sub-par to their non-organic counterparts. Instead, they have grown in vogue for their association with sustainable growing practices and their absence of additives. People see them as healthy alternatives. “People are looking for healthy options and they have more time to think about what they are consuming. We’ve gotten the feedback from people, saying, ‘I want everything in my basket to be organic,’” says Katrina Frey of Frey Vineyards Ltd.”
The future has never been brighter for organic wine sales, and we look forward to their continued growth in 2021 and beyond.
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