8. 3 PHYSICAL ACCESS TO ORGANIC FOOD – MARKET IN THE CR

Interest in organic products is growing slowly annually and with this offer of the organic market grows as well. Consumers buy most of the organic foods in the Czech retail networks, followed by health food and organic food stores. At the end of the year 2014, there was available in total 2,893 organic food items in selected retail chains. Average annual consumption per capita remains below 200 CZK.

At the end of 2014, there were registered 352 distributors of organic foods (an increase of 15% to previous year). Organic food imports reach up to 60% of the turnover of the Czech market, with the inclusion of the final organic food imports amounted to 46% of the retail turnover (data from 2012). Most of the buyers of organic food are middle-aged women. On the other hand, older men present the least number. The main reason for buying organic food is the fact that it is healthier and tastier. In opposite, the biggest barrier purchasing organic products are their price and followed by the range of the products.

In the Czech Republic, organic farming has been developing since 1990. While this year first three organic farms were registered, in 2014 it was already 4,023 certified organic farms that manage area of nearly 500,000 hectares of farmland which represents a share almost of 12%

of the total agricultural land in the country.

Year after year, also the number of organic food producers is increasing. We are now producing in 539 establishments. (BIO, 2016)

Table 8 The assortment of organic food offered by retail chains in 2010 (BIO, 2016)

As it was noted above, most people buy organic food in retail chains. Some chains even offer a relatively wide range of organic food. The retail chains Tesco and Globus have the biggest assortment. Most of the retail chains have their own organic food brand, whose products are in the range with other brands of organic food.

Globus retail network offers the widest selection of organic products from all the retail chains.

The assortment of organic food in 2013 has grown to more than 530 kinds of products and continues to grow. Globus has not its brand of organic foods. Therefore, it purchases most of the organic products from suppliers or the brand Alnatura Alnavit.

Tesco retail network has its own brand of organic food Tesco Organic. The brand was introduced in the Czech retail networks in 2007 and now offers more than 100 products for customers.

The size of organic food range differs according to the type of store. Albert Hypermarket offers more products as well as organic products than Albert Supermarket. At the moment, Albert is offering 160 types of organic products. In addition, the retail chain Albert has its brand of organic foods Albert Bio where a range of more than 80 types of organic products can be bought. Considering future, Albert is going to continue to expand the size of the organic food network.

In Kaufland store, more than 200 types of organic products of different brands currently observe because sales network has not introduced its brand in the Czech Republic. Own brand of Kaufland - Kaufland Bio is only available in Germany. In Czech stores, the organic brand has not been registered.

Billa retail network has its Czech brand of organic food Naše Bio. The brand was introduced in 2009 and is intended only for the Czech and Slovak markets. By this, the company Billa wants to give space for domestic producers and local specialties. (BIO, 2015)

The company Penny has introduced its own brand Bio Style in 2009. At that time, the assortment received 11 organic products of the brand and was planned to rise further. Except the brand products Bio Style, Penny offered more than 80 other organic products.

Although Penny Market is only discount chain selling organic food, this privilege does not work among customers. Penny customers are not interested in store´s organic food offer, and the company is reducing the range of organic products from year to year. Currently, it is possible to find only 5 kinds of organic food in Penny Market, including 3 products of Bio Style.

The results of the analysis may be seen surprising but they perfectly express the reality and the economic situation of customers. The interest in buying organic food is increasing slowly;

sometimes people do not buy organic food only because they are not economically accessible.

However, high price always cannot be the only reason for disinterest. A significant role is also played by the inadequate awareness of people in the very essence of organic farming. The wave of exaggerated mediatisation inflated the importance of organic food to such proportions that captured rather distrust among people. People do not trust organic product brands what is understandable for many scandals with fake organic producers. On the other hand, it is necessary to mention the fact that customers do not control what they buy. They do not care about the labelling of real organic food which authenticity is guaranteed by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic and European Union.

Whether organic food from the range of some retail chains will disappear completely is a question not only of the social security of the state but also of the access of consumers to food purchasing and responsibility for their health.