The organic category closed out 2025 with numbers that would have looked optimistic in a forecast deck a year earlier. U.S. sales of certified organic products reached $76.6 billion, up 6.8% year over year, according to the Organic Trade Association’s 2026 Organic Market Report, released March 4, 2026. That growth rate was roughly double the 3.4% posted by the overall marketplace, marking the second consecutive year organic has outpaced total market growth, according to OTA Co-CEO Tom Chapman.
Food did the heavy lifting. Organic food sales hit $70.1 billion, up 6.9%, pushing organic’s penetration of the overall food market to 6.1% and growing roughly three times faster than the overall food market’s 2.3% growth rate. Non-food organic categories, textiles, supplements, personal care and pet food, added $6.5 billion combined and remain under 1% penetration of their comparable markets. That gap is the clearest evidence that organic’s share story is still, first and foremost, a food story.
Produce still leads, but the growth has cooled
Organic produce remains the category’s front door at $22.7 billion, close to 30% of total organic sales. But 5.3% growth is steady rather than spectacular, especially set against what is happening elsewhere in the store. Within produce, the subcategory data tells a more interesting story. Berries, the largest produce subcategory at $4.4 billion, grew 10.5%. Citrus jumped 18.1%, and bananas reached the $1 billion mark on 12.6% growth.
Grocery followed at $15.7 billion, up 4.2%. Organic baby food and formula rose 8.8% and now account for 11% of organic grocery sales, while shelf-stable dried beans, fruits and vegetables climbed 13.6% on demand for affordable, plant-based staples.
Where the real acceleration is happening
The categories posting the fastest growth are ones that used to lag organic’s produce-led story. Organic dairy and egg sales rose 12.8% to $9.6 billion, a $1.1 billion jump. Yogurt grew 16.6% and egg sales rose 22.4%, even as prices stayed elevated from the avian influenza outbreak that began in 2024.
The standout of the entire report was organic beef, up 44.3% to top $1.4 billion, the fastest growth of any category OTA tracked. The report attributes that surge mainly to imports, with domestic organic beef supply chains still catching up and new domestic product expected to reach market in 2026.
Beverages grew 7.2% to $10.2 billion. Dairy alternatives rose 18.2%, and soft drinks, enhanced drinks and powders were up 11.5%. Both numbers suggest organic is riding the same protein and functional-wellness wave reshaping conventional grocery, not standing apart from it.
“For the second year in a row, organic has grown faster than the total market,” said OTA Co-CEO Tom Chapman, adding that shoppers are “willing to pay a premium” for products they trust.
The private label tension
Set against organic’s gains, the broader store brand story explains why shelf space across the entire grocery store is being renegotiated. U.S. store brand sales rose 3.3% to a record $282.8 billion in 2025, nearly three times the 1.2% growth logged by national brands, according to Circana data released by the Private Label Manufacturers Association. Private label unit volume also hit a record 68.7 billion units, while national brand units fell 0.6%. Over the past five years, private label’s dollar share has climbed from 19.1% to 21.3%, with unit share up nearly two points to 23.5%. That is a structural shift, not a one-year blip. Refrigerated led private label dollar growth at over 6%, followed by beverages at nearly 5%.
For organic buyers and brands, that math matters because retailers are increasingly using their own organic-labeled store brands to capture the category’s growth rather than ceding shelf space to national organic suppliers. Albertsons has been expanding its O Organics private label assortment with niche, ready-to-use formats such as refrigerated herb blends, a sign that retailers see organic credibility as a differentiator worth building in-house, according to eMarketer’s analysis of the 2025 private label boom.
What this means for the trade
Three things stand out for organic ingredient suppliers and brands watching where shelf space is headed next.
- The fastest-growing organic categories, beef, eggs, dairy, dairy alternatives, are not where organic has traditionally been strongest. That means ingredient sourcing and certification capacity in animal proteins and functional beverages are now the binding constraint, not consumer demand.
- Produce’s growth has decelerated to mid-single digits even while it remains the largest category by dollars. Incremental shelf-space gains are more likely to come from subcategory innovation in citrus, bananas and berries than from broad produce expansion.
- With private label capturing a growing, disproportionate share of overall grocery growth, and retailers building out organic store brands like O Organics, national organic brands need a clearer differentiation case beyond the seal itself.
That last point is exactly what OTA is betting on with its “Seal Makes It Simple” marketing campaign, launched in September 2025 to shore up consumer recognition of USDA Organic against a widening field of competing claims like regenerative and non-GMO. As private label retailers lean harder into their own organic assortments, the seal’s distinctiveness becomes the thing national brands actually have to sell.
The long view
OTA’s long-range forecast has organic sales compounding at 5.6% annually, a rate consistent with the trend since 2016. The association projects the category will add another $24 billion in sales over the next five years and cross the $100 billion mark in 2030.
That trajectory assumes organic keeps winning share inside categories where it remains a minority player, animal proteins and functional beverages chief among them. Based on the 2025 data, that is precisely where the fight for shelf space is now concentrated, and where ingredient suppliers with certified, scalable supply chains stand to gain the most ground over the next few years.