Archive for the ‘Organic Industry’ Category
Having Cocoa Supply Issues?
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010Food Business News reports in its July 6 issue that cocoa demand is, in fact, quite
elastic.
As a result of the economy, consumer demand for high-end chocolate, which uses cocoa butter, plummeted. At the same time, demand for compound chocolate, which uses cocoa powder, rose. Since equal amounts of butter and powder are made in the processing operation, many processors cut back or shut down, resulting in a very tight market for cocoa powder.
The International Cocoa Organization expects demand and prices to increase through 2011. Many cocoa buyers have held off making their purchases and are now experiencing 24 week delivery times.
Gillco has planned for this shortage and we have limited supplies available. If you would like to secure your organic cocoa supply for the first half of 2011, please contact us as soon as possible so we can reserve your requirements.
Organic Cocoa Powder from Cargill
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010Gillco is now distributing the Gerkens® brand of organic cocoa powder from Cargill. We offer 10/12 natural and 10/12 lightly alkalized organic cocoa powders that are manufactured following strict food safety and quality standards.
According to Hugo van der Goes, Cargill’s VP Cocoa & Chocolate, “We are pleased to offer our customers this line of organic cocoa powder, which builds on Cargill’s strong product portfolio and provides even more opportunities to share the ingredients and knowledge to help our customers succeed.”
Gillco is especially proud of Cargill’s commitment to doubling the number of Farmer Field Schools in Cote d’Ivoire to 300 by mid-2010. This commitment celebrates Cargill’s ten years of successful cocoa farmer training and highlights Cargill’s belief that training farmers is a key to building a sustainable supply chain, increasing farmers’ incomes and supporting the growth of cocoa farming.
Organic Sales Reach $26.6 Billion
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
According to the Organic Trade Association (OTA), U.S. sales of organic products grew 5.3% in 2009 to $26.6 billion.
Of this figure, $24.8 billion represented organic food. Since 2000, organic food has more than tripled from 1.2% of total food sales to 3.7% in 2009. Organic foods have been much more resilient in the economic downturn.
Despite the economic climate, consumers understand the benefits that organic foods offer and appear to make other budget cuts before they give up on products they value. From a retail prospective, 54% of organics are sold through mainstream grocers and club stores and 38% were sold through natural retailers.