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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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Big Island farm company to debut at Fancy show
BIG ISLAND-BASED
Wailea Agricultural Group Inc. will hit the big time, for the first time, next week at the
31st Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco's Moscone Center.
Were this a sports column, there would probably be a reference to "the big dance" in here somewhere, but it's not.
Staged by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, the winter show is one of three big trade shows the association puts on each year on the West Coast, East Coast and in Chicago.
Companies that go to the Fancy Food Show serve the high-end, gourmet market and sell their products in such places as Nieman Marcus and Compleat Kitchen at Ala Moana Center, said Katie Anderson, executive director of the Hawaii Food Manufacturers Association.
Big players attend these shows to woo buyers and increase their market share. We're talking
Brown & Haley, the Almond Roca people;
Godiva Chocolatier Inc.; and
G.L. Mezzetta Inc., known for its pickled peppers, gardiniera, olives and more.
At least seven Hawaii companies are buying their own booths, but Wailea Agricultural has joined a hui of local manufacturers that are chipping in on a collective booth with the Hawaii Food Manufacturers Association.
The Hawaii hui is paying $500 each, plus their own air fare to be part of the booth. Companies paying their own way and decorating their own booths can wind up spending from $5,000 to $50,000, so the show is not for the faint of marketing budget.
"There are thousands and thousands of buyers, so the folks from Hawaii that go tend to be the ones that are not necessarily bigger, but they can meet suppliers' demands," Anderson said.
They also have to have a distribution channel, which she describes as a chicken-and-egg situation because "a distributor won't take you until the product is in giant retailers and the giant retailers won't take you unless you have distribution." The Hawaii association has been working toward piggybacking some newer local products into the distribution of more established local products, with some grant help from the state Department of Agriculture, "and that's helping," she said.
Wailea Agricultural had been to the show previously as a spectator, said Vice President Lesley Hill, "but this will be our first year to actually be exhibiting."
The company's Fresh Hawaiian Heart of Palm is already served at five-star restaurants on the mainland, she said, but this will be its first foray into pitching its produce to mainland retailers.
Hill plans to visit some of her chef clients and sample their preparations while in the city-by-the-Bay.
The HFMA booth also will show Island Princess macadamia-nut popcorn and wasabi-flavored snacks; exclusive tea blends from the Tea Chest; tropical fruit spreads made by Planted By The River; Hawaii's Special-brand papaya-seed vinaigrette and dressing; taro and sweet potato chips from the Hawaiian Chip Co.; and Wailea Agricultural's hearts of palm, cultivated on the Big Island.
Most heart of palm sold in the United States is imported from Central and South America, but Wailea Agricultural's product is not canned or jarred in brine, but is sold as fresh produce.
It can be eaten raw or prepared in an unlimited number of ways. At the Fancy Food Show, Hill will grill it with a little olive oil.
Bear Creek Fine Foods, out of Seattle, will be extending its love for Hawaii during the show by exhibiting nearly two dozen made-in-Hawaii products.
"The owners lived in Hawaii for a long time," Anderson explained. The idea is to promote not just one or two Hawaii products, but a portfolio of them.
Other Hawaii companies that will be exhibiting include Aloha Shoyu Co., Family Food Co., Harpo's, Hawaii Coffee & Tea Co., Hawaii Kai (salt production) and Kona Blue Water Farms.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com