[OKC] From MSNBC: Wal-Mart to Cut Back Organic Food in Stores

[Miles, Karen]

Organics: A poor harvest for Wal-Mart 
Farmers say retailing giant is backing off ambitious plans 
Last fall, Peter Ricker got an order from Wal-Mart Stores for organic
apples that was the biggest he'd ever seen. "I'm talking trailer
truckloads," says the 34-year-old, eighth-generation apple farmer in
Maine. Ricker had heard of the giant retailer's push into organics, and
he thought the order could be the beginning of a surge in demand. But
that wasn't the case. While most retailers place orders with Ricker Hill
Orchards once a week, Wal-Mart never came back. 
He's hardly alone. A number of organic farmers across the country say
that Wal-Mart has backed off of aggressive plans to offer more organic
foods. After placing large orders for organic apples and juices last
year, the retailer is cutting back or stopping orders altogether. Wade
Groetsch, president at the Florida juice producer Blue Lake Citrus
Products, says he stopped shipping his organic orange-tangerine blend to
Wal-Mart after a few months. "The sales there just weren't enough to
justify our costs of packing and shipping," he says.
A year ago last March Wal-Mart grabbed headlines by announcing its
organic push. Stephen Quinn, a top marketing executive, told investors
at a Bear Stearns conference that the company would double the number of
organic food items in its stores to 400 and offer them "at the Wal-Mart
price." But now Karen Burk, a spokeswoman for the company, says that the
majority of Wal-Mart stores are offering between 100 and 200 organic
food items. She says the company does not have a target, at least not a
public one, of stocking 400 organic items in the average store.
Burk denies that this means the company has fallen short of its goals.
She said Quinn had been misinterpreted and hadn't meant to suggest that
Wal-Mart stores would actually carry 400 organic items. He meant that
the company would make as many as 400 organic items available to store
managers; if they choose to stock only 25% to 50% of those items, it is
simply a reflection of local demand. "It has always been our goal for
our locations to be 'stores of the community,'" she wrote in an e-mail.
Article continues at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18093795/
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