Cheap organic foods in store; Wal-Mart using Wild Oats line.

• Author: D'Innocenzio, Anne
• Position: Business

Byline: Anne D'Innocenzio

NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart is using its massive size to drive down the price of organic food items, from tomato paste to chicken broth, to make them more affordable for its low-income customers.

The world's largest retailer and nation's largest grocery seller said Thursday it has teamed up with Wild Oats to sell a new line of organic foods, starting this month, that's at least 25 percent cheaper than the national organic brands it carries and in line with the prices of its branded non-organic alternatives.

Wild Oats helped pioneer the organic food trend in the late 1980s, but has largely disappeared from store shelves since 2007. Its 6-ounce can of tomato paste, for example, is priced at 58 cents, compared with 98 cents for a national-brand organic version. A 32-ounce can of chicken broth under Wild Oats is priced at $1.98, compared with the $3.47 for a national-brand alternative, according to the discounter's survey of 26 nationally branded organic products available at Walmart.com.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is unveiling nearly 100 pantry items under the Wild Oats label over the next several months, adding to the 1,600 organic food items it already carries. It's taking a cautious approach, planning to have them in about half of its 4,000 domestic namesake stores to make sure it can satisfy demand. The Bentonville, Ark., company will be the exclusive national retailer of Wild Oats.

''We are removing the premium associated with organic groceries,'' Jack Sinclair, Wal-Mart's executive vice president of grocery, told reporters during a conference call Wednesday.

Wal-Mart and other mainstream stores are trying to stake a bigger claim in the hot organic market as they see shoppers from all different income levels wanting to eat healthier. Analysts believe that Wal-Mart's strategy could put more pressure on companies like Whole Foods to lower prices.

Sinclair declined to comment on how big Wal-Mart's organic business is, but he said sales of organic food are...