ORGANIC produce in Australia is still very much a niche market, commanding separate shelf space and premium prices.
In Denmark, however, organics now make up about one third of the overall retail grocery market, and some standard lines like eggs and milk are pushing towards the magic 50 per cent benchmark.
By dropping the retail price, moving product lines into discount stores and fuel stations and selling hundreds of different organic products, Denmark is now the largest organic market in Europe – and probably the world.
Co-operatively owned Coop is Denmark's biggest retailer, and now also the country's main organic sales place.
Coop holds around 37pc of the market, and is different because of its ethical trade, corporate social responsibility and organic focus.
About 1.6 million Danes are a member of FDB, the co-op which owns Coop.
It is the company behind some of Denmark's biggest supermarket names and the company's shops range from small local corner stores to regular supermarkets, discount shops and what they call large "hypermarkets".
It now boasts more than 50pc of Denmark's organic market share, and is proud to claim a leading role in developing the industry and consumer demand to what it is today.
Coop's corporate social responsibility manager, Katrine Milman, said organic sales started in Denmark in 1981 and more organic produce is sold in Denmark than anywhere in the world.
She says this is probably so because sales started so differently to other European countries.
"We started selling organic in the supermarkets," Ms Milman said simply.
"Whereas in Germany they started out in special health shops.
"It became an ordinary product quite fast.
"If you go to the local gasoline station you will find organic milk there."
Ms Milman said demographics determine where they sold a lot of organics, and where they sold very little, with no even spread across the community.
"Near the large cities people have higher income, higher education but in the countryside the sales are dropping.
"But even during the financial downturn Coop has kept its organic focus."
She said today more than 40pc of the Danish milk market is organic, while baby food is 93pc organic.
"Every third egg we sell is organic – the price difference is enormous, maybe 300pc from the cheap egg to the normal egg.
"But if you have taken the decision that you want to pay more for your food, then you start to think something will happen to you if you go back on that decision."
Ms Milman said in the last three years Coop's organic sales have increased enormously, even despite the world's financial woes.
"This year we thought it would drop because everything is going down, but we've kept our organic sales at the same level as last year, which was the biggest selling year for organics.
"The financial crisis has not affected consumers buying organic."
Coop's organic story almost 30 years ago began with organic carrots, and it took six years before organic milk was sold.
Ms Milman said their move into organics at the time was seen as an attack on conventional farming, but when the country's largest dairy decided to get on board the supply of milk, and consequentially the sale, went through the roof.
Denmark has its own State-regulated organic label which also helps, with a single label across the industry.
The real turning point for the sector was 1993 when Coop decided to drop the price on its organic lines and help more people start buying more organic food, with now up to 600 different organic products available in its major supermarket chains.
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