Time to wake up and smell the organic coffee Scotland’s a successful food exporter, and Scotland Food and Drink’s key branding is ‘health, premium and provenance’. Across the world, organic sales continue to grow almost everywhere except the UK. Take France, where organic sales rose 12% last year, and where the number of organic farms grew by 55% in the last three years. It’s our main destination for food exports, accounting for 25% of sales. The next three top destinations – Spain, Germany, Italy– were up 12%, 9%, and 12% respectively. To put those figures in perspective: organic food in Spain is 74% more expensive (a much bigger gap than in the UK) and Germany already has an organic food sector 4 times larger than the UK. In the USA, an important market for Scottish food and drink, the organic food sector grew 8% against a 1% growth in the conventional food sector. And what about the emerging economies? Russia – up 25% in two years. China – organic sales have quadrupled in last four years, expected to quadruple again in next three years. Organic sales in India are doubling annually, and were up 40% last year in Brazil. Health, premium and provenance? Time for an ambitious organic strategy for Scotland.