One of the last supermarket holdouts is holding back on organics no longer.
No-frills grocery chain Aldi has added certified organic produce in five divisions across the country, including in the Twin Cities.
The privately held German company started introducing an organic line of packaged products in September in other areas and brought it to 46 stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa this month, said Bob Herbst, director of purchasing for the Midwest division.
Becky Balder of Bloomington said last week that she was happy to see Aldi adding an organic selection. "It means a lot that organic is cheaper there," she said.
The launch comes at a time when supermarkets have seen organic sales rise faster than the general food market. In 2011, organic food sales grew 9.4 percent to $31.5 billion, while the total U.S. food market grew 4.7 percent to $703.4 billion, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA).
Many stores are still seeing single- or double-digit growth in organic sales. In 2012, Cub Foods saw organic sales increase 7 percent, the Wedge Co-op increased by 9 percent, and Lunds/Byerly's and Roundy's, which owns Rainbow, had double-digit increases, according to representatives from those operations.
"This shows a changing trend toward organics," said David Livingston, a Wisconsin-based supermarket consultant. "It's one of the fastest-growing segments in the food industry."
The growth is occurring in spite of a report last year from Stanford University indicating no significant differences in the vitamin content of organic and conventional fruits and vegetables.