Organic produce

The Soil Association has launched an online ‘Organic Christmas Collective’ to showcase everything a family needs to enjoy an eco-friendly festive season.

The collective, which aims to tap into a growing online market for organic produce, provides inspiration to help shoppers find local, ethical and organic products.

“Whether it’s sourcing a turkey or trimmings for Christmas dinner, finding a favourite tipple, or gift ideas, the Collective makes it easy to find and support local shops, stockists and producers,” the Soil Association said in a press release.

The Collective also addresses one of the biggest barriers to organic growth: availability of organic products. The Organic Christmas Collective aims to overcome this hurdle by bringing a variety of organic products together in one place, connecting organic brands and businesses with organic shoppers.

Searchable by product or region, the directory features an online map that shows your closest sources first.

The online organic produce market grew by 9.1 per cent in 2015, according to the Organic Market Report 2016, with more people than ever purchasing organic products via the internet – either through independent retailers or box schemes.

The overall organic market is in steady growth, with recent figures suggesting that this year’s Organic September – an organic awareness campaign organized by the Soil Association – has consolidated further sales rises.

Organic sales have increased by six per cent, compared to -0.7 per cent in non-organic sales, in the 52 weeks to 1 October 2016.

Organic suppliers that want to be part of the Organic Christmas Collective can sign up here.