Matthew Fordham says he simply can't compete

While the Welsh Assembly wants 10% of Welsh farming to be organic by 2005, current affairs programme, Week In Week Out, has learnt that many organic farmers are being priced out of the market.

Ceredigion farmer Matthew Fordham said he has difficulty getting his produce into stores because the retail giants can buy more cheaply and in greater volume from heavily subsidised growers overseas.

He claims he is forced to throw away almost 40% of his produce even though it is good enough to go before consumers eat.

"Vegetables are looked at from the supermarkets' point of view in a superficial way," he said.

The assembly is keen to see more organic farming

"It's practically as if we're trying to put our vegetables on parade, like a beauty pageant.

"That's not what organic vegetables are about."

The Soil Association, a charity which sets organic standards, has warned that the future of the fledgling organic industry in Wales is under threat.

Soil Association Director Patrick Holden said: "The risk is that if these price wars put this inexorable pressure on the organic producers too, they will follow in the same direction.

"We will not have a growing, prosperous organic producer community in Wales.

However, the UK Government's Rural Recovery Co-ordinator, Lord Haskins, has questioned the ability of organic farming to satisfy the food market.

In a BBC Wales lecture in February, he spoke in favour of genetically-modified (GM) crops as an important component in future efforts to feed a growing world population.

Although Lord Haskins supported the idea of subsidies for environmentally-sensitive farming methods, he said a fully organic approach could never feed the world's population.

"Organic farming is much less productive than conventional farming," he said.

"There would be less food available and food prices would soar.

"It would lead to economic and political collapse in much of the developing world."