WASHINGTON — A new study released Wednesday finds a global appetite for organic food in foreign markets and suggests U.S. farmers should take better advantage of the rising foreign demand as well as growing U.S. demand for organic produce.

At the Organic Trade Association policy meeting in Washington, DC,  the new study, conducted by Pennsylvania State University's Edward Jaenicke, associate professor of agricultural economics, found exports of U.S. organic foods as well as imports have risen significantly in the past few years.Laura Batcha The OTA-commissioned study analyzed trends in international trade for the organic products the U.S. government currently tracks: organic products that have been assigned a harmonized tariff schedule code.

Apples, lettuce, grapes, spinach and strawberries are the top five organic products exported by the United States. Exports of organic apples alone jumped 40 percent in 2014 from the previous year, compared to a  small 3 percent growth rate for non-organic apple exports, the report said. In fact, the pace of growth for the exports of almost all of the 26 organic products tracked was markedly higher than that of their non-organic counterparts.

The report also found exports of organic produce account for an increasingly greater proportion of total exports. Of all the cherry tomatoes exported by the U.S., for example, 42 percent are organic; 33 percent of the spinach exports are organic, along with 27 percent of the onions and 23 percent of the carrots.

“We found that many of the American-grown organic products are really out-performing in the export market,” Monique Marez, OTA's associate director for international trade, said in a press statement. “This shows a thirst for organic products — and specifically for U.S. organic products — that is resonating around the world.”

On the import side, the top five organic imports are coffee, soybeans, olive oil, bananas and wine. Imports of organic products outpaced exports, amounting to nearly $1.3 billion in 2014.

"Going organic is not easy, but this report identifies that there is opportunity for U.S. farmers in both the domestic and global organic market,” said Laura Batcha, OTA's CEO and executive director. “This study provides critical new data not only for farmers, but for the industry, lawmakers and other policymakers to design programs and supply chain partnerships that will encourage more organic production and help our farmers make the transition to organic.”

Meanwhile, OTA released another study today that found sales of organic food and non-food products in the United States broke through another record in 2014, totaling $39.1 billion, up 11.3 percent from the previous year.

Organic fruits and vegetables continue to be the biggest-selling organic category in 2014 with $13 billion in sales, up 12 percent from the previous year, and making up more than 36 percent of all organic food sales, OTA reported.

Of all the produce now sold in the United States, 12 percent of it is organic, a market share that has more than doubled in the past 10 years when organic produce sales accounted for only 5 percent of the fruit and vegetable market.