The Future of Organic Food in Swedish Retail

Abstract: Human activity affects planetary systems that support living on Earth and the food systems is a large contributor to overstepping the planetary boundaries. Global and national sustainability aims include targets for organic food production, during the latest years many countries have grown their organic food market share. However, the Swedish organic food market share growth stopped in 2016. The purpose of this study is to understand why the decline of the Swedish market share growth occurred and what the future might hold for the organic food category. This qualitative study has aimed to find answers through interviews with initiated persons in the Swedish food system. Results indicate that many changes in the political and societal landscape pressured the Organic food and the Organic food category transformed into the new Sustainability food category, presenting more competition for organic labelled food, together with plant-based, vegetarian and climate-friendly food. The rise of Swedish produced food, increasingly important from a national self-sufficiency and survival perspective, should be viewed as sustainable, and is also a competitor of organic food. The shine of organic food is often lost in the multi-faceted competition with the other sustainability and Swedish foods, but the market share has stayed at a stable level since 2016. Looking to the future, the new sustainability food category in Sweden will contain organic food but also locally produced food, that has been produced with more effective and environmentally friendly methods. The Swedish climate presents difficulties for year-round agriculture and the aim to become more self-sufficient needs to include locally produced meat, dairy, vegetable, and plant-based foods, indicating a need to focus innovation and development on Swedish food production and conservation methods. Socio-environmental sustainability aspects in Swedish food production, such as the unhealthy effects of mineral fertilizers and pesticide on all living species, should be integrated for the benefit of current and future generations and people in all stages of the food chain. In practice, government agencies in Sweden don’t cover all sustainability dimensions and have conflicting aims which indicates a need for an overarching sustainability initiative to conduct and optimise governmental sustainability activity, avoid silo-thinking and lead communication efforts. Legislation guidance is needed to keep food availability in Swedish retail stores sustainable and healthy. The EU organic label and the KRAV label have not yet adapted to the local sustainability needs of Swedish food production and efficient production methods, indicating space for a new label or possibilities to renew the sustainability range of the existing labels. Keywords: