Sales are romping away for organic chilled pot desserts. Yeo Valley Organic claims organic yogurt grew 73% last year, a performance outstripped by its own 100% growth. Soaring consumer demand has led to a spate of innovations. Yeo Valley Organic has recently added virtually fat free organic fruit yogurt and organic fruit yogurt for kids to its range which includes natural/fruit yogurts, crème fraîche and frozen yogurt. Despite high ingredient costs, products are priced competitively against non organic brands, a factor that plays a large part in its rising sales, says the company. Loseley Chilled Products has just launched an extensive organic range which includes fruit, Greek, low fat, luxury and natural yogurt, plus fromage frais, and is pricing them in line with its current range. Managing director Tim Henniker-Parker says this is being achieved by using Friesian rather than the Jersey milk the company normally employs. "Organic Jersey is still too expensive, but we will switch to it when we can get the volume. Our move into organics is a natural progression. A lot of consumers already thought we were in it." Henniker-Parker doesn't see a clash between the two ranges whichwill run side by side. "They appeal to different consumers, organics being bought by people who want this type of produce, while our existing customers will continue with our standard range because they like the Jersey taste. I've seen it work in the US, and it'll work for us so long as we're clear, honest and don't confuse consumers." Rachel's Dairy, now part of America's largest organic dairy product supplier Horizon Organic Dairy, is experiencing 60% sales rise year on year. Operations director John Rowlands is very optimistic about the future of organic yogurt which he reckons will be worth about 11% of the conventional market by 2003. The company has just launched three more organic yogurts, a live Greek style with honey, live wholemilk with maple syrup, and a live low fat with vanilla. With equally high expectations of the organic market, MD Foods is supporting its Harmonie Organic range with £2m campaign this year which will include TV advertising. It has extended the range with a baby yogurt variant made with organic fruit purée. With sheep and goats yogurt increasingly being stocked, Woodlands Park Dairy has just brought out an organic version of natural sheeps yogurt in a 250g pot. It plans to have its entire sheep milk range organic by the middle of next year. {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}

Topics