Focus groups of value concepts of producers: National Report UK

Summary

The Organic Revision project was funded by the EU with the aim of supporting the further development of the EU Regulation 2092/91 on organic production. As part of the project focus groups were run in five European countries on value concepts of organic producers and other stakeholders, during 2004-2005. The project aims to provide an overview of values held among organic stakeholders, and of similarities and differences among the various national and private organic standards.
In the UK, three focus groups with producers were carried out, one in England and
two in Wales. Two of these groups were with established producers and one group were newly converted producers. A further focus group was held with researchers and professionals from Organic Centre Wales.
Overall, this survey showed that in 2004/05 the UK organic sector was characterised by slowed down growth in both retail sales and conversion, a heavy reliance on multiple retailers as the main outlets with negative impact on farm gate prices, a higher supply than demand in some livestock markets. On the other hand there appears to be a growing interest in direct sales and local food and efforts to diversify into different sales channels. Few studies have investigated the values of organic producers in the UK, but several have looked at the motivation to convert. There are indications that motives for organic producers have changed to some degree. In the first surveys improvements to husbandry were mentioned by the majority of producers, in later studies the environment and financial considerations appear more important, but the reasons for this change are not fully understood, but external circumstances have also changed. It also appears that organic producers are not homogenous in relation to their attitudes with factors such as farm type and marketing channel, explaining some of the observed differences.