To kick-off the Natural Products Expo West 2023 event, experts detailed the state of the natural & organic industry, citing the category’s rapid growth trajectory.
In the opening keynote of the four-day event at the Anaheim Convention Center, Carlotta Mast, SVP & market leader at New Hope Network, Nick McCoy, managing partner at Whipstitch Capital, and Kathryn Peters, chief of staff at SPINS, spoke about what’s trending in natural & organic and what the future holds for the category, with the theme “Growth Reimagined.”
While inflation and foodservice growth caused a temporary drop in consumer packaged goods (CPG) spending in 2022, natural & organic products continued to see gains, with food & beverage reaching $111.5 billion in sales, a 7.2% increase year-over-year, according to SPINS data. Functional food & beverage sales increased by 5.8%, natural living product sales increased by 6% and supplement product sales grew by 1.6%. Total sales were $278 billion last year, and are expected to grow in 2023.
“The industry continued to grow last year despite the impact of inflation,” said Mast. “Total industry sales are expected to surpass the $300 billion benchmark this year. This would represent a doubling in industry sales in the last decade. We are a sizable, impactful, meaningful industry. We’re not a fad anymore, we’re not this niche industry.”
From the retail perspective, natural & organic growth isn't limited to just natural grocery chains. Natural product sales were up across the channels in 2022, with convenience (+9.2%) and conventional multi-outlet stores (+7.3%) seeing the largest gains compared to 2021.
“This resilience also continues across all changes of trade, which is exciting,” said Peters. “We see everyone continuing to flourish, whether that's natural supermarkets, regional grocery, conventional, more mainstream stores, or even convenience. Natural products are growing across them all. The important message is resilience and just how large this industry is becoming."