T. Ozbun
Research expert covering food retail and all food topics for Italy and Brazil
Organic food market in Brazil – statistics & facts
Consumers' increasing search for organic products, whether for health benefits, environmental concerns, or a desire to support local farms, has contributed to the significant growth of Brazil's organic food market. Ranking just behind its neighboring countries Argentina and Uruguay in terms of organic farmland in Latin America, Brazil’s cultivated area has been growing in recent years, reaching nearly 1.5 million hectares in 2021. The organic industry's revenue has been increasing in recent years as well, showing relatively constant annual growth rates. However, both cultivation and revenue of organic food in Latin America are still far from those of other regions of the world, and in Brazil itself, the state of organic farming is not yet keeping up with demand.
Organic market in Brazil
Despite the growth in the area devoted to organic crops, the share of total farmland dedicated to organic crops is still extremely small, standing at just over 0.6 percent. This in turn means that has not been possible to keep up with the increase in demand, which has more than doubled in just over half a decade. Cotton and sugarcane were the two crops with the largest organic farmland area in the country; not coincidentally, they are also two of the country's major crops in general. Increased consumption of organic products has also led to an increase in the number of producers in this sector, reaching a total of nearly 27,000 in 2023. Organic producers are still characterized mainly by small local businesses, but there is no shortage of some large ones such as Usina São Francisco S.A., which in 2021 held 17 percent of the sector’s retail value.Consumer behavior
More than one in three Brazilian consumed organic products, of which nearly a third consumed these products more than eight times a month. Among these consumers, vegetables and fruit were the favorites, with product appearance as the main factor when choosing organic products. Despite the growing numbers in the sector, addressing challenges of price and accessibility will be key to expanding the customer base in the coming years.
