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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

A ‘kosher awakening’


Shoppers wait their turn at the Kosher deli at Albertsons' Jewel Food Store, this week in Evanston, Ill. Albertsons has dramatically expanded Kosher aisles at hundreds of its supermarkets across the country, and launched more than a dozen Kosher destination stores that include everything from bakeries to delis.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press

NEW YORK – When Albertsons hired Yakov Yarmove more than three years ago, the company found a point man to navigate what might seem an unlikely market for a grocery chain with stores in places like Cheyenne, Wyo., and Evanston, Ill.: kosher food.

Albertsons, one of the nation’s largest grocery chains, has since dramatically expanded kosher aisles at hundreds of its supermarkets across the country. The company has also launched more than two dozen kosher destination stores that include everything from bakeries to delis.

“There’s a kosher awakening,” said Yarmove, an observant Jew who is Albertsons corporate kosher- marketing and operations manager. “Kosher was perceived as scary and foreign. Now it’s perceived as chic. I think everybody is realizing that there is an opportunity.”

The Idaho-based Albertsons – which may soon have a new owner – is just one of many companies around the country competing to get a lucrative slice of the kosher industry. The approximately $9 billion kosher market is growing at a rate of 15 percent a year. Meanwhile, total grocery store sales grew 4.4 percent during the first 11 months of the year over the same time last year, to $424.8 billion, according to the Food Marketing Institute.

Experts say the boom is being fueled by several factors, including vegetarians and younger customers looking for healthier and safer food – the same demographic that has helped the organic market take off. Plenty of these customers are not Jewish.

“When I take the matzos to the church, they love it,” said Ursula Torres of New York, who was buying 100-percent-wheat matzos recently at Streit’s, a Jewish landmark on the city’s Lower East Side.

Companies haven’t overlooked the advantages of selling kosher, which means that the food was prepared under Jewish dietary laws.

Manischewitz, one of the best-known kosher food companies in the world, is developing an advertising campaign that says their name is “Jewish for good food.”

Hebrew National, a division of ConAgra Foods, has always touted that famous tagline found on its packages: “We answer to a higher authority.” But over the summer, the company decided to move the “Finest Kosher Quality” seal to a more prominent spot on certain product packaging.

Lou Nieto, president of packaged meats at ConAgra, said two things are driving the double-digit growth at Hebrew National, which recently opened a new state-of-the-art kosher facility in Michigan.

“First and foremost is taste, but number two is that it’s 100 percent kosher beef – nothing artificial,” said Nieto, who oversees the Hebrew National brand.

He added that sales were being bolstered by non-Jewish customers, who devour the company’s popular hot dogs at hundreds of venues across the United States.

To meet demand, the industry has undergone radical changes to appeal to the tastes of more consumers, recognizing that kosher food is more than the traditionally bland matzos (known as the bread of affliction), gefilte fish and borscht. The transformation was on display last month in New York at Kosherfest 2005, a convention that drew more than 6,100 buyers, manufacturers and distributors from 36 countries.