America Wants More Organic Products Than Anyone Else: Here's How To Play It

According to an article published Thursday on Statista, Data Journalist Niall McCarthy looks into the world’s largest markets for organic products. He notes that, with roughly 43 million hectares of land dedicated to organic agriculture worldwide, demand for organic produce is at its historic high.

According to a FiBL-IFOAM 2013 report, total sales of organic products reached $72 billion that year, with the US concentrating 37 percent of them ($26.7 million). Germany came in second, trailed by France, China, Canada, the UK and Italy. The writer adds, however, that “the EU as a whole did come close to matching the US in 2013 with organic retail sales worth $24.56 billion.”

So, as demand for organic products continues to rise, how can investors capitalize on the trend?

Motif Investing, a site that constantly hunts for “trends, ideas and world events that could create an investment opportunity,” and then selects 10 to 30 related stocks to build portfolios that weigh them based on their exposure to a this particular idea, event or trend, provides a few ideas. The Healthy and Tasty motif includes companies that produce, market and sell healthy foods and nutritional supplements.

Let’s take a look at how the portfolio allocates its assets.

Fifty five percent of the assets are allocated to food producers’ stocks, 23.8 percent, to grocery stores, and 21.1 percent to nutritional supplements. On the other hand, top stocks by allocation (leaving nutritional supplement aside) are:

• 14.3 percent: Hain Celestial Group Inc HAIN
• 13.6 percent: Whole Foods Market, Inc. WFM
• 11.6 percent: WhiteWave Foods Co WWAV
• 10.8 percent: Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc FDP
• 6.7 percent: United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI
• 5.3 percent: Sprouts Farmers Market Inc SFM
• 3.2 percent: Calavo Growers, Inc. CVGW
• 2.8 percent: Cal-Maine Foods Inc CALM
• 2.8 percent: The Fresh Market Inc TFM