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A line of African specialty foods debuted with great fanfare September 20 at the flagship store of the Food Emporium, an upscale grocery chain in New York City. The “Africa Set,” a collection of more than 280 products like spices, jams, juices and garnishes from all over the continent, is the result of more than two years’ research, screening and marketing by the Talier Trading Group, with assistance from USAID's Southern and West Africa Trade Hubs. The Southern Hub helped plan the Food Emporium event – which included an appearance by celebrated economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, author of The End of Poverty and former director of the U.N.’s Millennium Project – and a number of its clients’ products will have a permanent place on the store’s shelves, including Ceres, Nando’s, Elephant Pepper, So!Go!, Rooibos Jam, Mrs. Balls, So South African, and Verlaque Fine Foods. Talier is now marketing the Africa Set to major U.S. distributors and grocery stores, including Whole Foods, Kroger, Safeway, Shaws and Winn Dixie. But the relationship goes further than mere promotion: Talier also provides advice, free of charge, on USDA-compliant labeling, meeting supermarket/distributors’ packaging needs, ways to enhance marketability (e.g. improving labeling design, producing kosher/halaal products, etc), and pricing – all critical to keeping specialty food companies competitive in the US market. Published November 2008 Share through your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
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