Organic milk producers in the UK are to seek a new consumer sector with "a paler shade of green" to multiply their current one per cent share of the £3 billion (€4.85bn) annual milk market by five, reports The Scotsman.
The aims are a result of a glitch in the market last year, when production outstripped supply, threatening the 50 per cent-organic premium.
The so-called "dark green market", around 500,000 UK households, had become saturated, but new opportunities are now to be seized.
Market analysts claim that customers must understand why organic milk and dairy products demand premium prices and there has to be increased branding, just as the retail sector has seen with bottled water and fruit juice.
"Buyers don't want to be preached at and they don't want pseudo science in the explanations, but they will accept organic messages which point out freedom from BSE, genetic modification and antibiotics in production systems, " market analyst Mr Whiting told a Soil Association conference recently.
His aims were supported by UK supermarket chain Tesco, which along with other groups has recently been criticised by the organic lobby for reducing organic premiums.
British shoppers have seen weekly grocery bills fall by about £3.50 in the last four years, while ex-farm milk prices have fallen from 26p per litre in 1995 to less than 15p in 2000.
With ever-lower prices, consumers needed more information to convince them of the arguments for organic food.
A Tesco spokesman said the company was prepared to back the trend for organic food, but the organic sector also had to help itself by reducing the number of certifying bodies, such as the Soil Association, which caused confusion, according to analysts.