by Jessica Wohl

WAL-MART IS TRYING to make organic food more accessible to its budget-conscious shoppers.

The nation’s largest retailer is making a bigger bet on the fast-growing category, teaming with Wild Oats to sell organic packaged food priced in line with conventional foods and at least 25 percent less than other organic brands it carries.

The effort by Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer and the largest seller of food in the United States, could have a ripple effect in the grocery industry. Cost has been one obstacle for many shoppers who say they would like to buy organic food but hold off because of typically higher prices.

Wal-Mart’s research showed that 91 percent of its shoppers would consider buying products from an affordable organic brand.

“We’re removing the premium associated with organic groceries,” said Jack Sinclair, executive vice president of the grocery division at Wal-Mart U.S.

The Wild Oats brand is probably familiar to many consumers who buy organic. It is the same brand as the chain of stores that Whole Foods acquired in 2007. Now, Wild Oats is relaunching as a line of foods focused on organic items such as tomato sauce, chicken broth and spices, with Wal-Mart as its only national retailer.

Sales of organic foods have soared in recent years, as more consumers pay attention to where their food comes from and try to eliminate exposure to chemicals and toxins. U.S. consumer sales of organic food products rose 10.8 percent, to $26.3 billion, in 2012, according to New Hope Natural Media’s Nutrition Business Journal.

Initial estimates suggest that sales grew about 11 percent in 2013. It forecasts that the organic food market will surpass $60 billion by 2020, with average annual growth of 10 to 12 percent from now through 2020, far outstripping that of conventional food.

The Wild Oats debut at Wal-Mart comes as mass-market retailers, including discount chains, groceries, convenience stores and warehouse clubs, accounted for 46 percent of U.S. organic food sales in 2012, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. Natural and specialty retailers followed with 44 percent of sales.

The Wild Oats items will start out, as early as this month, in about 2,000 Wal-Mart stores, including some in the Chicago area, and should ultimately be in the more than 4,000 Wal-Mart stores across the country that sell groceries. They will also be sold on Wal-Mart’s website this summer.

Local stores that should have the products soon include the store in Northlake, Illinois, along with Chicago stores in West Chatham at 8331 South Stewart Ave., on the South Side at 10900 S. Doty Ave. and at 626 W. Diversey Ave.

Wal-Mart has a lot of competition in selling organic products. The best-known player in the category is Whole Foods, which had overall sales of $12.92 billion last year.

On Wednesday, Target announced that it was grouping together certain natural, organic and sustainably focused products, including some from food-makers such as Annie’s Homegrown, Horizon Organic and Plum Organics, to help make it easier for shoppers to find such items. Target said its sales of natural and organic products grew 15 percent last year.

Products may carry the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s organic seal if they are certified according to USDA regulations, such as being made without synthetic fertilizers or genetic engineering and containing at least 95 percent organic ingredients.

Before the Wild Oats debut, Wal-Mart sold more than 1,600 organic grocery items, including produce, dairy products and branded packaged goods. Organic goods are still a small part of the company’s overall grocery business, but their sales are growing at a faster rate than sales of conventional foods in almost every category.

“There’s no doubt that organic food is becoming more popular for our customers, and they’re buying more of the organic food that we do have,” Sinclair said. “If we can make that price premium disappear, we think it will grow much, much faster.”

Though organic food sales are rising rapidly, more consumers have started to focus on other criteria, such as whether the food they buy is locally sourced. Based on how often terms are seen online, including on mobile devices, interest in “local food” has surpassed interest around “organic food,” according to Kontera, a firm that provides insights for brand marketers.

In March 2013, “organic food” had a 63 percent share of views versus 37 percent around the “local food” concept. By last month, that ratio essentially flipped, with 65 percent of views around “local food” and 35 percent around “organic food.”

As mainstream retailers begin responding to consumers’ preferences for healthier and organic products, such chains will do more to merchandise and carry them, said Carlotta Mast, lead researcher at New Hope Natural Media’s NEXT data and insights division. Many of the more innovative food companies that her group tracks are introducing products without organic certification, as smaller brands often put off the pricey process of certification for a while, she said.

“There’s still organic brands that are launching, but it would be difficult for them to reach the scale to be able to supply a big retailer such as Target or Wal-Mart,” Mast said.