The Historic Town of Oamaru is becoming the showcase for New Zealands organic industry.

The New Zealand Organic Food and Wine Festival in Oamaru is growing into a national event with companies from as far away as Northland coming to set up stalls.

This is the third time the biennial festival has been staged in Oamaru and is now being recognised as one of the premier events on the organic food and wine calendar.

Changes have been made to the format for this year's festival, on March 15 and 16, with most of the activities being concentrated on one day.

On Saturday night, an organic dinner is being staged at the Quality Brydone Hotel, with the festival itself in the historic Harbour St on Sunday.

In previous years, a forum with prominent guest speakers has been held on the Saturday.

This year, the speakers are due to be heard on the Sunday at the Electric Museum theatrette, which gave people a chance to hear them while attending the festival.

More than 40 stall sites have already been sold for the festival and more could be there with bookings being taken until next Monday.

They will be offering organic food, wine and other produce, including wine from as far away as Northland, beer from Taranaki and soft drinks from Auckland.

Food stalls cover everything from fish through to emu and organic vegetables.

Entertainment will also be provided throughout the day.