Opportunities from organic

Ihave just spent two weeks in Minnesota visiting family and speaking to farmers, seeing new farming areas and finding out how the harvest is doing in another part of the world. While in Duluth on Lake Superior, after watching a vast shipment of soya beans heading to the world market, an article in the Star Tribune caught my eye.

Minnesota ranks ninth in the US in organic production and boasts sales of double-digit growth that mirrors trends across the country.

Minnesota has 545 certified organic units, 108 of them dairy, and more than 130,000 acres of organic farmland. The state produces 14% of the nation’s organic oats, 14% of the maize and 11% of its soya beans. Sales of organic milk are in excess of $43 million.

There is no secret that organic farming is not for everybody, but with Brexit uncertainty, budget cuts and pressure on inputs, there might be an opportunity for increased organic production.

Last month saw the owners of Planet Organic hire a team of investment specialists to explore the sale of the business. The health food pioneers who created the food chain in 1991 have identified the boom in healthy eating as the trigger to sell the company.

Planet Organic makes around 30% of its sales from freshly squeezed juices and the balance from organic groceries.

The age profile of its customers is interesting in that 60% are under the age of 40 and this is the age group that is fuelling the healthy eating craze which has seen the dramatic rise in sales of avocados, chia seeds, green tea and other “superfoods”.

It was probably no coincidence that two years ago, as part of the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leader Programme, a team developing a business plan to create frozen natural fruit juices for the under-40 age group won high praise from the judges.

The rapid growth in the establishment of blueberries in Angus also reflects the interest in the so-called superfruits and healthy eating.

Last month sales of organic food rose by 7.1%, according to the Soil Association.

I am not advocating a complete swing to alternatives, but with careful marketing it might be that there is an expanding niche for organic

I am not advocating a complete swing to alternatives, but with careful marketing it might be that there is an expanding niche for organic production

production. I am quite certain that to obtain any sort of subsidy in the future we are going to have to pay far more attention to environmental issues than we have in the past and this is one way which might make sense for some farmers to consider.

The rules for water quality can only get stricter so any associated reduction in fertiliser and spray use must be worth thinking about.

While we have to accept lower yields, there are corresponding lower inputs. Good sward management will be the key to profitable cattle and sheep finishing and the more stock we can finish off grass the greater the profit.

Cost control is going to be ever more important post-Brexit. We are going to have to be more creative and adventurous, and if organic production grows, who knows what might follow – more free-range poultry and pigs, GM crops, minimum tillage for crops?

With the exception of GM, there is nothing new in current agriculture but what is clear is we can’t do something just because it has always been done that way and we all need to look at what we do and how and why we do it.

Malcolm Taylor is head of land management at Bell Ingram.

Picture: Dougie Nicolson. Superfruits – Blueberries growing at the James Hutton Institute in Invergowrie.