Organic Foods Find Opportunity in the Natural Food Industry

0 rganic foods may constitute a small segment of the $334 billion in retail food sales in 1994, but they have carved a niche in a retail food sector growing by leaps and bounds-the natural food industry. As reported by the industry's leading trade publication, the Natural Food Merchandiser (NFM), organic product sales in natural foodstores grew by 21 percent in 1994. The market for organic products has escalated with sales increases of 20 percent or more each year from 1989 to 1994, according to NFM (USDA does not compile retail sales data for organic foods or natural foodstores). The dominant retail outlet for organic foods-natural foodstores- captured 67 percent of the $2.3 billion in total 1994 U.S. organic food sales. In some areas, competition from successful natural foodstores has spurred an increase in the volume of organic products stocked in conventional grocery chain