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diggA toast to Latino foods: $2 billion in sales
Hispanic foods continue to be a major driver in the economy
Hispanic foods continue to be a major driver in the economy, as attendees to the Expo Comida Latina Texas in Houston learned last month. A.C. Nielsen statistics show that sales of Hispanic foods have accumulated $3.2 billion in sales the last four years, up 3.5 percent from a year earlier. Tortillas and Mexican salsas and sauces accounted for nearly $2 billion in 2006.
And in a March New York Times story about upscale supermarket Rancho Liborio in Denver, reporter Kim Severson wrote that research showed Hispanic families preferred wider in-store walkways because they tend to shop together - a design element that Latino Perspectives first noted last October in its Spanish Aisles marketing story.
Of course, if you prefer to stay home, quietly sipping Latin American coffee, companies such as Starbucks have noticed.
Last month the Seattle-based corporation launched a new line of Latin American-flavored products, accompanied by music and visual art, to coax more Hispanics into its stores.
Baristas are now serving dulce de leche lattes and Frappuccinos to go with mango-pineapple empanadas or reduced-fat banana dulce coffeecake. Stores already stock coffees from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. The Latin American varieties "continue to be among the most popular varieties with our customers," says Dub Hay, senior vice president of Coffee at Starbucks, in a company news release.
The company signed Costa Rican artists Eloy Zuñigas and Cecilia Facio de Figueres to create limited edition canvases and coffee mugs. A CD of sambas by international artist CeU (pronounced "say YOU") has been co-released by Starbucks and Six Degrees Records to be sold in company stores and other retail outlets.
