The organic industry is growing so quickly that retailers are re-evaluating the products they offer and how they market them. Organic food sales are growing at an annual rate of 20 to 25% each year. Organic produce makes up 42% of retail organic food sales.

In a recent workshop in Orlando, "Use Organic Labeling To Your Advantage", two conventional retail managers, both of major supermarket chains, described their organic produce program so attendees could see different ways to handle the category.

One retailer predominantly segregates organic produce into its own section of the store. However, where he has experimented with integration, such as with packaged salads, he has seen triple-digit growth. The second manager reported that his stores began with segregation, but began experimenting with integration five years ago and found huge sales growth in those organic products and now predominantly integrates organics in the same section as conventional produce.

He developed a sign program, using yellow tags to indicate where the organics are located. He explained that if you segregate the organic produce into its own section, customers have to make a conscious decision to go to that section.