May 10, 2005
Latin American Importing Brand Challenges
Hispanic Business Doreen Hemlock. Latin American Importing Brand Challenges.
Venezuelan entrepreneur Nubar Herian is striving build distribution for his Latin food products in South Florida. In Venezuela, Herian boasts a network of supermarket chains and neighborhood groceries that carry his "Monaco" brand of canned fruits and vegetables. Sales for his 15-year-old company totaled about $20 million last year alone. But in Florida, six months of efforts to contact supermarkets and send out samples have met little success.
Buyers often tell Herian's Pompano Beach team they're busy or already well served or can buy similar items cheaper -- though his quality may be better.
So, Herian took a booth this week at the Fispal Latin Food Fair and Forum in Miami Beach, hoping to show his wares to industry buyers during work hours and the general public at afternoon tastings.
"Our biggest challenge is to get our foot in the door," he said Thursday, as show attendees sampled his peaches and artichokes from Chile and hearts of palm from Ecuador. "We've got to get our products in front of the consumer."
More than 300 companies, largely from Brazil and Spain, share the exhibition floor with Herian at the three-day trade show that ends today at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
Their goal: to supply the 40 million-plus U.S. Hispanics estimated to spend at least $600 billion a year on food, plus tens of millions more in the United States who enjoy such Latin treats as extra-virgin olive oil from Spain or guarana soda from Brazil.
Fispal, Brazil's biggest food show organizer, launched its first U.S. event this year to bring together Latin vendors in one locale to simplify purchases for U.S. buyers. Group
chairman Ricardo Santos Neto said he hopes the show can grow to more than 1,000 exhibitors next year, as food helps unite people in the Americas.
"This is a new way to build the Free Trade Area of the Americas that politicians are having trouble creating," Santos Neto joked, referring to the proposed 34-nation free trade pact that has stalled.
But tapping the vast and highly competitive U.S. market often requires large production volumes and hefty outlays on marketing and advertising that are beyond the reach of small Latin producers, exhibitors acknowledged.
That's why Venezuelan Roberto A. Weill said he's launching Miami-based Latino Food Network Corp., seeking to distribute goods from multiple nations and share the costs among them. The network is talking with grocery and liquor chains to set up Latin food corners, offering such varied items as Bon tropical fruit jams from Dominican Republic, Bohio seasonings from Puerto Rico and Famosa beer from Guatemala.
"If you don't have volume in the United States, you're dead in the water," said Weill, an industry veteran who touts his venture as a "one-stop shop" for foods from the Caribbean, Central and South America and Spain.
Some exhibitors found slim response at Fispal's inaugural U.S. show.
Miami-based J.H. Distributors Inc., which sells olive oils, olives and honey from Spain, said it's been struggling with the high value of the euro that makes its goods relatively expensive in dollar terms.
"In supermarkets, people are looking for cheap prices. They're not that interested in quality," said Colombian entrepreneur Jorge Henao, who also had hoped for greater turnout from U.S. buyers at Fispal.
Spain's Conservas Fredo, a producer of "elite" anchovies in olive oil including some sold under the Corte Ingles department store label, welcomed mostly restaurateurs at its booth, leaving chairman Giorgio Nasari still looking for a U.S. distributor late Thursday.
Still, the Latin vendors kept hopes high, eager to savor profits amid the U.S. Hispanic boom.
Posted by Ahorre at 07:35 AM