I know several of us have helped one or more of the teams who are researching the organic baby foods market. I thought I would share a few of the more unusual sources that I found.
The USDA just published a report on Marketing U.S. Organic Foods. Charts and graphs from the report can be found here. It doesn’t include data on baby foods but has a good survey of who buys organic foods and how much organics cost.
The Economic Research Service of the USDA has a website devoted to Organic Agriculture. It points to a working paper on the demand for organic baby foods published in 2001 and this lead me to a database called AgEcon at the University of Minnesota. A search on organic baby foods there found four reports, the latest from 2009.
While I applaud recommendations, these suggested sources are limitedly useful to those students working on the organic baby food market for two reasons:
1. Limited mention of baby food as a niche market in the organic food industry.
2. Data is dated with some of the latest info from 2006. The market has appreciably changed since 2006 with new companies and market drivers
I would like to suggest another place to look:
Consider encouraging students to access:
“State of the Specialty Food Industry 2009,” a recent report from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT). This report noted: “baby food is one of the three fastest-growing categories in specialty food right now (Yogurt and Kefir, and Refrigerated Juices and Functional Beverages are the other two). All three categories grew more than 50 percent in sales between 2006 and 2008, with baby food going from $34 million in sales in 2006 to $58 million in 2008 — a remarkable 70 percent increase.”
And, within our own library databases:
Be sure to encourage students to gather all market research reports using Euromonitor Passport GMID and MarketResearch.com. For example, I found three useful reports in MarketResearch.com which included key industry and demographic information on the organic baby food market. Simply click on “Food & Beverage” and then search “Organic”. You can sort by date to review the most recent reports at the top of the list of results. Some of the reports which I reviewed and found useful began with titles like “Ethical Food and Beverage…”, “Natural and Organic Food and Beverage Trends…” and “Foodies in the U.S.: Organic/Natural Foodies…” all prepared by Packaged Facts in 2008 or 2009.
I prepared a handout detailing this information if anyone is interested.