The public sector accounts for a large part of the organic food purchases in the country. Last year, 44 percent of publicly procured food was organic.

By 2030, 60 percent of public food consumption will be organic, according to the national food strategy. If that goal is to be met, municipalities and county councils need to continue to increase their purchases of organic, states the non-profit association Ekomatcentrum.

Municipalities are cutting back

But at the turn of the year, Ekomatcentrum reported that "right now there is a trend where several municipalities and regions are cutting back on organic food and lowering or removing their goals for organic". Among other things, the municipality of Lund, which has so far been "best in class" with 82 percent organic food, has deleted the goal of 100 percent organic food.

But it is not yet visible in the sales figures. During the first half of the year, the municipalities increased their purchases of organic food by 1.9 percent compared with the same period in 2019.

- We feared a reduction after politicians started talking about favoring Swedish food rather than organic, but it has not happened, says Eva Fröman, at Ekomatcentrum.

Moved focus to climate-smart

Erik Bergseth, CEO of the food tech company Mashie, which, among other things, helps private and public actors to achieve their climate goals, believes that organic is no longer the main focus.

- In recent years, the focus has shifted from ecological to climate-smart, says Erik Bergseth.

Several municipalities now also have targets for reduced carbon dioxide impact in their food purchases. And then sometimes locally grown can beat higher than organic. 

Despite this, he believes that the goal of 60 percent ecologically will be met.

- What speaks for it is that, if the global goal of biodiversity is to be met, organic production must increase.